After negotiations with Hector, which ended with an agreement to sell him 20% of all salt production, Victor set off further.
He wanted to reach the territory of Shermanin County as soon as possible because he had come up with an idea for dissolving his marriage with the Duke's daughter, which was accidentally suggested by a baron.
In conversation with him, Hector congratulated him on his upcoming wedding to an incomparable beauty.
Somehow, the baron found out that the duchess has a weak connection to magic and congratulated him on his luck. He said that if it weren't for her condition, he wouldn't have been lucky enough to marry her.
"It may be that other people cannot solve her problem, but with 'concentration' stones I can help her get rid of her weakness, and once she gets them, the marriage will be dissolved, and I'll be able to forget about this like a bad dream," came into Victor's mind.
Thinking about this, he was already burning with impatience. Just the thought that his wife, even only verbally, would be with another man made him want to kill someone. Who could endure such humiliation?
It might be normal for this world, but not for him. Victor experienced much misfortune in his own world, but always worked hard and struggled to survive.
Yes, he considered himself unlucky and complained about his fate, but never gave up. And especially did not allow anyone to trample on his pride. This is exactly what the aristocrats were planning to do in this world.
No matter how strong you become, if your wife, even for a short moment, betrays you in life, you'll still remain a man who was cheated on, even if you kill her and wipe out their entire family. And he didn't want to carry such shame until the end of his days.
Having found a way out of this seemingly dead-end situation, he continued on his journey, and after six days, the convoy entered the city of Hitmor, where from the very entrance one could see the palace of the count.
The city itself was surrounded by a ten-meter-high wall, and the count's palace was located at the center of the city on a hill.
A town with a population of one hundred and ten thousand inhabitants was considered medium-sized. In the absence of modern agriculture, its normal functioning required at least twenty-two villages. Each village should provide food for approximately five thousand people.
This simple arithmetic rarely matched reality. Because in order to feed the residents of this city, products were brought from almost forty villages, and even then prices remained quite high.
That's why Victor was so focused on producing food. You can't expand the number of people without providing them with food, and without people, your economy is just empty talk.
Whatever you produce, you won't be able to sell it to people who are thinking only about finding something to eat. That's a vicious circle, and logically everything revolves around food.
The convoy approached the central gates, which began to open as soon as they noticed the flags on Victor's carriage.
Entering inside, they headed towards the estate where he stayed last time and which remained assigned to him.
As usual, the butler greeted him, and after exchanging greetings, he went to his room.
Servants had already prepared a bath and bedroom for him, so he really wanted to get there quickly and wash away the dirt from his body. Soaking in the tub for more than an hour, he finally got out of it and returned to the bedroom, lay down in bed, covered himself with a thick blanket, and fell asleep.
The road was indeed tough. They hurried so much that they tried not to stay overnight in any populated area. This led to setting up camp right on the road.
Fortunately, having a silver knight made their nights peaceful. The aura he constantly emitted scared away animals and people who might have had some small thoughts.
Waking up early in the morning, Victor decided to have breakfast and asked the servant to bring a jeweler from the city. Time was running short, and he wanted to prepare in advance.
After breakfast, the servant brought a letter from the count ordering him to visit during a family dinner. It was rather strange since Victor had lived separately from his family since childhood, and these dinners seemed unusual to him.
Putting aside the letter and standing for a while, pondering the situation, he went to the library, where he started studying the contents of the inventory.
This was what he practically spent most of his trip doing and devoted every free minute to it. There were many things in the inventory, with a list of one thousand four hundred items, but it wasn't clear what specifically was lying in the "bag."
So, he found there a whole arsenal of weapons. Everything from knives to halberds was encrusted with magical stones or enchanted by elven mages. However, none of this could be used by him, or rather, he didn't know how.
Swinging an ordinary sword and using a sword enchanted with a spell are two completely different things.
If it was enchanted in mythical times, it might turn out that it contains the magic of "Hurricane," causing a tornado and sweeping away both Victor and the estate. Considering what his hammer did, the weapon could do anything.
— Sir, the jeweler has arrived, — Lulu informed him, breaking his train of thought.
Victor asked her to take him to the library, and within a minute, an old man stood before him looking about a hundred years old. Such elderly individuals he hadn't seen yet in this world.
He wore a long gray robe and stood hunched over, making his height no more than one hundred fifty centimeters tall. His long white beard and hat, similar to those worn by wizards in fairy tales, made Victor suppress the urge to laugh. To avoid actually laughing, he immediately got down to business.
— I need you to make a necklace and bracelet according to this design, — saying this, he handed over a parchment with drawings of two objects.
Victor couldn't draw beautifully, but he drew well, and the items he depicted looked more like mechanisms. With straight edges and minimalistic design.
Everything in this world was done extremely pompously, and what he had drawn was ugly or even plain.
The necklace itself represented a chain with a pendant shaped like an inverted triangle hanging from it. Inside the triangle were embedded four stones, with the largest one being placed in the center, measuring two centimeters in size, triangular-shaped, repeating the design of the pendant.
The bracelet was five centimeters wide and fully encrusted with stones along its circumference, totaling twenty-two stones intended solely for it.
The jeweler did not discuss such a simple design but accepted the order and stones for processing and left the library.
There was one point that the jeweler doubted, but he feared arguing lest he lose his reputation. The stones he saw in the drawing of the bracelet and those meant to go at the corners of the triangle had a strange design he hadn't encountered before.
In Victor's previous world, everyone, even those who had never seen jewelry live, would recognize this design—it was the design of diamonds.
When examining the stones, they appeared suitable for such a design, although he wasn't sure whether they would shine as brilliantly as diamonds.
Once the jeweler left the library, Victor returned to studying the inventory until it was time to attend the count's lunch.
Servants brought the best clothes and dressed him for half an hour until they were convinced that their master looked presentable.
Outside, a carriage awaited him, and Alganis, who stood by the open door, waited for his lord.
Victor sat in the carriage, and the procession accompanied by knights headed toward the count's palace. All this looked too exaggerated in his eyes, but that's how it was only in his opinion. His soldiers and knight believed that this entourage was too sparse.
The generosity shown by their lord even on such a dilapidated land, as well as what Alganis told them about receiving "concentration" stones, instilled hope in them that if affairs on the territory improved even more, they also wouldn't be overlooked by their lord.
Five minutes later, the carriage stopped, after which the knight promptly opened the door, and stepping onto the street, Victor saw his soldiers standing at attention.
This scene caught the eye of Taross Butler, who though knew nothing about military art, nevertheless was impressed by the synchronicity and precision of the soldiers' movements. When he was about to welcome Victor, he suddenly froze.
Unable to restrain himself, Alganis released an aura for several seconds, which nearly killed the old man. If he hadn't dispersed it at the last moment, it could have concentrated and become deadly for an ordinary person.
Simply put, the knight remembered this butler from his last visit, and his attitude toward his lord back then left a bitter taste in his soul, and as he grew closer to Victor, this memory made him increasingly angry toward him.
This did not escape Victor's notice, though he did not know the reason, however, seeing that his knight felt this way about this individual pleased him, and he let the issue drop.
The butler standing before him was sweating cold sweat, but upon recovering, bowed quickly and greeted him, then escorted him into the house.
Dinner was due in five minutes, all members of the family must sit at the table earlier than the count, and when Victor entered the dining room, he found his stepmother and brother seated at the table. The woman sat to the left of the main seat, and the brother—to the right. Victor followed behind the servant, and when he pulled out the chair, took a seat next to his brother.
Judging by their expressions, they did not expect his visit, but dared not say anything because he could appear here only with the count's permission.
The count arrived just in time and immediately took his place. There were no greetings or conversations; everyone simply waited for the table to be laid, and afterwards, they began eating.
Luckily, Victor could access the memories of the previous owner of the body; otherwise, the objects presented to him would have put him in a difficult position.
Dinner passed without incident, after which everyone moved to the living room, and only now did the count decide to greet him.
— The wine you've sent turned out to be remarkable, — he said, taking a glass from the tray.
Unlike him, the Countess drank tea, and his brother merely sat on the couch next to his mother, but all three stared at Victor, each with a different look. The count regarded him more as a guest than a son, the countess did not try to hide her contempt, while Andros seethed with anger. Any praise directed at Victor caused him rage. Accustomed to always being the center of attention, he tolerated no competition in any form.
— Thank you, father, on my lands, I learned a new recipe from a book I found in the castle library, trying it, I managed to obtain this wine, — he lied outright, but had no other explanation, — I also brought you several more barrels as a gift, hoping you'll accept.
Only now did the count smile pleasantly. He loved drinking, and he fell in love with this wine, but what delighted him most was the guests' reaction at banquets. Since he was the only one in the entire kingdom capable of treating them all to wine that was incredibly hard to find.
— Have you already prepared gifts for the Duke and your fiancée? — The count regained composure and seriously asked.
Victor ordered a gift, but didn't realize he needed to give something to the Duchess, but now he was glad for this coincidence.
— Yes, Father, everything will be ready on time.
— We'll leave in three days, and by the way, I'll send a butler to you. He'll deliver something from me as a return gift, — announced the count.
Victor did not know what exactly this man wanted to give him, but whatever it was, it was valuable, and he currently needed money badly. Ordered jewelry had to be paid for, and if funds ran out, he'd have to search for them himself.
During all this time, only the count spoke to him. Mother and son preferred to act as if he didn't exist and communicated between themselves, which suited him perfectly fine.
— With your permission, I shall take my leave, — addressing the count, he received permission and left the living room.
He feared that either his father or brother might want to verify that he was still a worthless magician. Therefore, he sighed with relief only when he crossed the threshold of his estate.