dmims Chapter 103 The Lake Mountain Family's Desire for Progress
Chapter 103 The Lake Mountain Family's Desire for Progress
In the study, brightly lit by candlelight, the silver-haired Earl of Lake Mountain listened to the castle's head butler's narration for a long time before finally putting down his quill pen.
"Is it confirmed that he is indeed a wizard?"
In the central kingdoms, the existence of wizards is a secret, but not an absolute secret—once you reach a certain level of status, you will naturally become aware of their existence.
Among the central kingdoms, there are countless nobles.
The noble titles were divided into five ranks: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, as well as knights, who were a reserve noble class.
Nobles with different titles naturally have different identities within this noble system.
In this system, becoming an aristocrat is a qualitative change.
Becoming a marquis, however, represents a qualitative change.
Dukes and marquises are both considered high nobility—those below them are naturally considered low nobility.
Wherein lies the "greatness" of the great nobility?
In any kingdom, whether it is established through war or acquired through usurpation, the prerequisite for becoming king is that you must first be a high-ranking noble.
He was a marquis or a duke.
In these central kingdoms, all the great nobles have another title—Electors.
Even if they are not of the royal family, their desire to replace the king and become the new king is still "legitimate".
For other nobles, the inheritance of titles and the power of their families fluctuate over time, and they may even face the danger of extermination. Once they fall, they may never be able to get up again.
But those great nobles—as long as they haven't been wiped out, they will forever maintain the bottom line of the marquis title.
Even if all his fiefdoms were lost, even if all his wealth vanished, leaving him all alone, he would still be a marquis—still possessing the potential to usurp a kingdom.
In these central kingdoms, slaves and commoners lived in two separate worlds.
Commoners and nobles are two different worlds.
Among the nobility, the great nobles and the lesser nobles were two separate worlds.
The Earl of Lake Hill, as the name suggests, is an earl—the Lake Hill family is an earl family.
Three hundred years ago, the Hushan family was already an earl family.
The journey from earl to marquis took the Lake Mountain family a hundred years, and they still hadn't completed it.
It wasn't until the war two hundred years ago that the ancestors of the Hushan family learned of something from others.
From commoners to nobles, from barons to earls—as long as you have wealth and military achievements, you can achieve it and live a peaceful life to the end.
However, there is a formidable barrier between the ranks of earl and marquis.
If you can't overcome this insurmountable barrier, no matter how much wealth, merit, or noble support you have, you will only ever be a powerful earl, never a marquis.
That insurmountable barrier is... the wizard!
Only with the support of a wizard can an earl become a marquis.
Or to put it another way.
Among these central kingdoms, the kings, dukes, marquises, and every great nobleman are all tentacles extended by a wizard, the wizard's means of controlling the world.
In name only, the wizards in the central kingdoms have retired and do not actively interfere with the changes in the world... But in reality, all the changes in the central kingdoms come from changes at the wizard level.
For example, if a kingdom is usurped—then the ultimate reason must be that the wizard who supported the king suddenly stopped supporting him, or that he had died...
The family that usurped the kingdom also received strong support from one of their own wizards...
After the war ended, the ancestors of the Lake Mountain family recorded the changes in the noble titles after the war—all the families that had received the support of the wizards, those who were not marquises, became marquises.
Those families that did not receive the support of wizards, no matter how great the losses or achievements they made in the war, could only reach the level of earl.
The Lake Mountain family was an earl when the war began—but after the war, while one of their barons became a marquis, the Lake Mountain family remained an earl.
Even if the nobles dislike history, this period of the past can be remembered by the Lake Mountain family.
After that, the Hushan family continued to search for traces of wizards and sought their support. However, wizards were nowhere to be found in the central kingdoms, so they went overseas.
Even overseas, traces of wizards are not so easy to find.
To date, the closest trace of the Lake Mountain family to a wizard is that of Wizard Mohand, the master of the Beacon of Prosperity.
A year and a half ago, the Lake Mountain family confirmed that Mohand was a true wizard, and then sent one of their children to study under Mohand—not necessarily expecting their child to become a wizard.
All they wanted was to make contact with the sorcerer Mohand, nothing more.
However, since their descendants went to the Beacon of Prosperity, not a single word has come back.
Count Empoli of Eagle's Nest Island has also not replied to the Lake Mountain family's letters for some time.
"My lord, our men have returned from the Storm Islands."
"Based on the flag on the ship in front of Forked Ridge, our spies have confirmed the Scarlet Wizard's identity."
"The Golden Hibiscus Chamber of Commerce, which it controls, is also relocating to Chashanling."
"The other one who's with the Scarlet Wizard must also be another wizard."
The head butler of the Hushan family spoke up.
In reality, he was just a steward, a servant, but in fact, he could be considered the deputy patriarch of the Hushan family.
His name is Lu Wende Lake Mountain.
He was the Earl of Lake Mountain's non-biological younger brother.
This is the tradition of the nobility: the purest bloodline inherits the title—and then among the patriarch's non-嫡子兄弟 (non-嫡子兄弟), the one with the best relationship with him and the most talented person is chosen to serve as the patriarch's shadow and the family's chief steward.
Nominally, he was a servant, but in reality, he could make decisions on behalf of the Earl of Lake Mountain in most matters and could directly mobilize the majority of the family's resources.
For example, this time, in order to confirm the Scarlet Wizard's identity, they dispatched an extremely elite team to cross the vast ocean in small boats and fast ships...
While confirming the identities of the Scarlet Wizard and his companions, it was discovered that almost none of the spies who had crossed the sea in small boats survived.
They had heard about Forked Ridge much earlier, but it was only with them that Lu Wende confirmed the identities of the Crimson Wizard and his companions before reporting to Earl of Lake Mountain.
"Lu Wende, my brother, you can call me elder brother instead of count." Count of Lake Mountain looked up at his brother.
This head steward of the Lake Mountain family has been managing all sorts of affairs within the family, even neglecting his own training time—so much so that although he is younger than the Earl of Lake Mountain, he looks already very old.
However old he may be, Lu Wende still maintains a unique demeanor.
"Does Your Excellency intend to make a trip to Forked Ridge?"
"Lu Wende, what do you think I should prepare if I were to personally visit Chashanling?"
"What topics should we prepare when facing those two wizards?"