Returning to His Fief

The setting sun was as red as blood, shining into the secluded alleys of the royal city and making the place look even more dilapidated and rotten. A lonely, desolate figure cast a long shadow in the sunset, adding an air of tragedy to the rundown alley.

He was a black-haired, black-eyed youth. His tender face carried an expression of worry rarely seen in adults. At around 180 centimeters tall, with fair skin, he was easily mistaken for a noble scion in this world.

Kerry Raynor, walking through the alley, had no mood to pay attention to his surroundings. His mind kept replaying everything that had happened over the past six months.

"Child, go back to your old family fief. You can't stay here anymore..." That had been Great Aunt Magee's final advice to him at her home an hour ago.

Those words had caused all sorts of memories from his time in this world to surge through Kerry Raynor's mind. Almost all of them were unpleasant.

Raynor had originally been an ambitious young man on Earth who had inherited his family's business. Although that business was merely a forty-square-meter neighborhood supermarket, it had also been an old shop with twenty years of history. The young man was still unmarried, despite already being thirty-four. His parents had no desire to continue working and had retired to their hometown, waiting for Raynor to give them a grandson to raise. Unfortunately, they had waited from the time Raynor was twenty-eight until he turned thirty-four without even seeing the boy's mother. Furious, the elderly couple had flown straight to Beijing to stay with Raynor's younger brother. His brother had made something of himself, attending university in Beijing, marrying a rich and beautiful woman after graduation, and having a plump baby boy the following year. The child had always been raised by his maternal grandparents. The couple decided to spend a few years at their second son's home caring for their eldest grandson, sparing themselves the frustration of watching an older unmarried man back in their hometown.

Raynor had thought he could finally let himself go. His parents had controlled him for more than thirty years, and at last he was free. Who could have expected that he would wake up in the Raynor Kingdom on the West Europar Continent?

West Europar might be called Europar, but it was no longer the Europe of Earth. This was another planet. Based on the continent knowledge Raynor had learned over the past six months at the Magic Martial School in the royal capital, it was a planet several hundred times larger than Earth, with six moons. Four continents were known to exist, and the West Europar Continent was one of them. The other three continents were separated from it by the Abyssal Ocean. It was a continent plagued by constant warfare, somewhat like Europe during the war-torn periods of the original world.

The Raynor Kingdom—yes, the royal family of this country had the surname Raynor, the same as the thirty-four-year-old Raynor's. But he was no longer thirty-four-year-old Raynor. He was now seventeen-year-old Kerry Raynor.

Raynor had transmigrated into another body, a classic trope from certain web novels. He was now called Kerry Raynor, a distant branch of the royal clan and a fallen noble.

Unfortunately, Kerry Raynor had only enjoyed being half his former age for a few days before his bedridden grandfather, Kobe Raynor, passed away. Old Kobe had been a guard of the previous king. After Old King Raynor's death, he had lost his position and stayed at home. The current king was the sixth king, George Raynor. Although both families bore the surname Raynor, their blood relation was already extremely distant. If George Raynor had capable, reliable guards at hand, why would he employ an uncle-generation relative and disgust himself? Old Kobe's family, already declining with every generation, became even more impoverished. He could not even find work for his grown son—the father of Kerry Raynor. Unwilling to sit around and consume the family's wealth, Old Kobe had found a friend to send his son overseas to conduct business after his son gave him a grandson. After one or two trips, the man had earned some money.

Their good fortune did not last. After earning some money, Kerry Raynor's father wanted to work independently. He took his wife overseas to conduct business, only to encounter pirates, who killed them on the spot. Kerry Raynor had been only ten years old at the time. Old Kobe had been bedridden from then on, lingering for seven years and spending nearly all the money earned from overseas trade. He finally passed away before spring arrived that year.

Kerry Raynor had transmigrated two days before Old Kobe's death. His memories had merged automatically, and six months had passed since then. He had inherited Old Kobe's title—a baron, and a third-rank one at that. Once Kerry Raynor's generation ended, the family would become commoners. According to the kingdom's laws, commoners could no longer use the surname Raynor and would have to be called Raynos instead. Kerry Raynor had been utterly disgusted when he learned of this. Raynos sounded like "Raynor dies" in Chinese. If he had a son in the future named something like XX Raynos, a man whose Earth name had been Raynor could not stand it. Wouldn't that be cursing his own son and making himself miserable?

The entire family now consisted only of Kerry and his grandfather Old Kobe's elder sister, Great Aunt Magee Raynor. Their property amounted to only a small manor outside the royal capital and their old family fief. As a transmigrator, Kerry Raynor decided to strive for success. At the very least, he had to pass down his title. Otherwise, he really would be cursing himself by having a son.

Ideals were always plump, while reality was painfully thin. Normally, if a transmigrator did not rebel, he would be violated by ten thousand people—but unfortunately, it came down to personal aptitude. He could not learn magic at school, and his battle aura was also incredibly weak. He was a typical failure at both the literary and martial arts. From entering school at twelve to half a year after his transmigration, he still possessed only the strength of a Warrior Level 1. He could forget about rebelling.

Kerry Raynor, who had once been the CEO of a small shop in his original world, had planned to use the mathematics he had learned through nine years of compulsory education on Earth to become a civil servant or tax official after graduation. Perhaps after muddling through for a few decades, he could preserve the title and pass it on. But after asking around, he learned that there were simply too many useless parasites in the kingdom. Those civil-service positions had basically all been reserved by the families of the great nobles. There was nothing left to think about. He could only live off the small manor outside the royal capital and wait to die. At least that life would be better than his former days at the little supermarket.

After transmigrating for so long, he had not discovered any cheat or Golden Finger that he had brought with him. Kerry Raynor had already resigned himself to this ordinary life of eating his fill and waiting for death. Unfortunately, there was always someone more unlucky. The First Prince had taken a fancy to a tiny baron's manor. "Hurry up and offer it to me," a man with a naturally servile face had said to Kerry Raynor.

Delay! Kerry had no better option. He was just a fallen noble—how could he stand up to a prince? The delay lasted more than four months, and it was also where the bad memories began. Could anyone imagine living through a school day while classmates mocked him in every possible way? It was obvious that the prince was manipulating things from behind the scenes. It's fine. I'll endure it. If I'm not strong enough, I shouldn't act tough. That was one of the lessons Kerry had learned from his life on Earth. If he had the strength, he had never let revenge wait until the next day. At that point, Kerry could only fantasize about getting even while he was at home.

Kerry endured for four months and felt that he could continue enduring, but the First Prince could not. After four months of delay, how could a mere baron be so arrogant? Since his opponent's face was thick enough that having his classmates mock Kerry every day had no effect, the prince decided to act personally. He threatened Kerry face-to-face and gave him a deadline to hand it over. It had to be said that the First Prince was truly lacking in ability. He had even personally gotten involved in such a matter, but the effect was excellent. Threatened with being sent to prison, Kerry could only seek help from his sole relative, Great Aunt Magee Raynor. Thus, he had received the advice from an hour ago.

"Damn it. If you won't let me live comfortably, I won't let you enjoy yourself either," Kerry cursed under his breath before quickly walking out of the alley. The Second Prince's residence was visible at a glance once he left. The princes fought among themselves all day long for the throne. The Second Prince was, in any case, hostile to the First Prince.

Kerry knocked on the gate of the Second Prince's residence. An hour after entering, he came out with a complicated expression and hurried back to his manor. After packing his luggage, he prepared to leave for his old family fief the next day.

That was right. Before the deadline set by the First Prince, Kerry had sold the manor outside the capital to the Second Prince. He did not know whether it would intensify the conflict between the two men, but it would be even better if they ended up fighting to the death. He had originally planned to sell it cheaply, but the nobles of this country were all bloodsuckers. A cheap sale had ultimately become a dirt-cheap sale. A manor originally worth at least 5,000 Gold Coins had been sold for only 500 Gold Coins, along with a promise that Kerry would not be sent to prison.

As for why he had worn a complicated expression rather than one of anger or misery, that was related to the notification sound that had suddenly appeared in Kerry's mind.

"An item worth 500 Points has been detected. The system is beginning to bind to the host. 10%... 20%... 50%..." Kerry's heart skipped a beat the moment he received the 500 Gold Coins. It had finally appeared. As expected, transmigrators all received benefits; he had simply been using the wrong method to activate it before. In the past six months, Kerry had never imagined carrying 500 Gold Coins to school. After all, he was a fallen noble and had never possessed the means to carry that much money around. Excited yet nervous, Kerry hurried back home to his manor. By then, the system had reached 100% and bound successfully. After eagerly entering his Golden Finger, Kerry decided to set out for his rural fief at first light the next day.