First Meeting

After his shopping spree at a certain jewelry store, a certain clothing store, and a certain glass shop, Armand suddenly realized that if he didn't finish this visit soon, he'd have to hunt Magical Beasts all the way home to earn travel expenses. So, he immediately went to visit Frederick.

"We admire Count Henry Weissen's brave, fearless, and loyal character," Armand said to Frederick in fluent Rhenish. "Recently, we've heard of the unjust actions of your King William, and we are extremely indignant. We have specially entrusted me as a representative to assist the Count Weissen's family in overcoming this difficulty."

Frederick had recently often heard that the Kingdom of Gaul was free and romantic in spirit, and championed all virtues.

He'd heard it before and hadn't paid much attention, dismissing it as hearsay. Now that he saw it with his own eyes, he was startled.

On the coffee table between them lay a purple silk purse filled with gold coins.

Frederick didn't even glance at the money bag in front of him. He answered sincerely, "I thank Lord Armand and all our Gaulish friends for your concern. The Wessen Territory is indeed facing some difficulties at the moment, but I believe that with the efforts of everyone in the territory, we will surely overcome this challenge."

Armand carefully observed Frederick's every move, trying to see through this young man who wasn't much older than himself.

The information he had heard before coming to the Wessen Territory was vastly different from what he had seen and heard since arriving. The people here were not panicking or in turmoil because their lord was young and there were external conspiracies. Instead, they lived and worked in peace, full of hope for the future, and had even come up with endless ingenious ways to make money.

As a pillar of the younger generation of his family and a favored minister of the king, Armand's educational resources were incomparable to those of ordinary people. A prosperous small town was his classroom.

It was precisely because he had experience in governing a region that, after calming down, he could understand how difficult it was to govern the Wessen Territory well.

Just the matter of stabilizing the people's hearts, he didn't believe could be achieved with just a few songs. There must be something behind it that he didn't know.

However, for a moment, all he saw was that Frederick's clothes, while... understated and simple, looked quite sharp.

The Baron Weissen is not old, which is his advantage. He hasn't been through the baptism of luxurious life, so he can endure a simple life and save a lot of expenses.

Armand concluded his first observation inwardly.

Meanwhile, Frederick wore a smile but was also muttering to himself.

He couldn't figure out what the Kingdom of Gaul was up to. His father's fans sent him a few hundred gold coins?

The reason for sending the money was that he was being exploited by his own king?

What would others think of this? What would the king think? Could the Weissen Family really be colluding with the enemy?

Seriously, is this a scheme to sow discord?

He suddenly realized that he truly couldn't understand the creature known as a "fan," no matter which world they were from.

But this was nearly two kilograms of gold coins. He couldn't possibly send them back, especially since they had come all this way.

Using the time spent exchanging pleasantries, Frederick made a decision.

Since the king had already shown his true colors, he might as well accept the money.

As for other matters, as long as the propaganda was effective, even if they said it was a bribe later, people would only think they were forced to lie by the circumstances.

Moreover, Armand hadn't said his surname yet, and he hadn't given his surname when he introduced himself as a "fan," clearly treating this as a personal act.

After their pleasantries ended, Armand asked, "I have a question, I wonder if Your Excellency can enlighten me?"

Frederick nodded slightly and replied, "Please ask, Your Excellency."

Armand asked, "May I ask, when the Wessen Territory was facing a great crisis, how did Your Excellency unite the people of the territory?"

Frederick was startled inwardly. He hadn't expected this question.

"It's very simple," he replied. "Satisfy their needs."

Armand said in surprise, "But human desires are endless. To satisfy everyone's needs is like filling the sea."

Frederick didn't refute, but simply smiled and said "Yes," without further explanation because he couldn't explain it more.

Currently, psychology was just a branch of philosophy, with various theories proliferating. Because statistics hadn't been introduced, many studies used individual cases as universal examples, so there was no mainstream thought.

If you proposed humanism, opponents could bring a dozen or twenty negative examples in front of you to argue, and ask you if that was objective enough, and if not, they could bring two more cartloads of people.

It was very difficult to explain Maslow's hierarchy of needs to the people here now, let alone something as novel as using psychology to guide territorial development.

At the same time, in order to accommodate the incoming refugees, Frederick was beginning to try to break the regional ethnic concept attached to the feudal system and build something even more novel: nationalism.

With one hand, he relied on the promise of meeting everyone's money-making needs after the canal opened, backed by the recently emerging maltose and steel trade. With the other, he relied on the external conflicts caused by King William's infuriating mismanagement, using nationalism to unite the internal population and everyone who could be united, causing the morale within the Wessen Territory to continuously rise.

Armand, however, was thinking that these things were not something a child like Frederick could come up with. So, he found a casual excuse because he didn't know the details, and when he was exposed, he couldn't continue.

In Weissenburg, if the Sword Saint Richard Nahl had this political knowledge, he would have already attached himself to a powerful figure and become a duke. Therefore, there must be a master behind the Baron Weissen.

It was just that this master was still unknown, and was most likely one of the scholars from Constantinople.

When there was civil unrest in Constantinople, many people fled, including famous scholars and advisors unknown to outsiders. These people were all talented and spoke with reason, and they would be highly valued wherever they went.

Armand felt a little eager at the moment. It would be great if he could invite such a talented person back.

To meet this master, he stayed here and ate for three days. However, besides a senior veteran gangster from the southern Kingdom of Sardinia, he didn't see anyone else around Frederick.

The day before Armand left, Frederick gave him a gift.

"What is this?" Armand looked at the object in front of him with curiosity.

It was a hexagonal wooden box. The wood was precious, and the decoration was exquisite. The lid had six different colored glass flower patterns.

Opening the lid, it was a glass Chinese Checkers set. The board and pieces were made of colored glass, with different colored pieces corresponding to different flowers.

Frederick had a formal smile on his face and said, "This is Chinese Checkers, a small game. You can play it by yourself or with six people. It's for Françoise."

Armand was well-traveled. Whenever he had free time these past few days, Frederick would ask him about the outside world.

As he talked, he mentioned his younger sister, Françoise, a girl three years older than Frederick.

Frederick was preparing to proactively welcome the refugees, which required him to maintain good relations with the local lords. To this end, he prepared several small gifts for pleasantries.

Since two of the lord families had children around his age, the gifts included two newly invented Chinese Checkers sets.

It wasn't appropriate for Armand to leave empty-handed after coming all this way, but Frederick didn't have many presentable gifts. So, he gave this seemingly beautiful and interesting glass Chinese Checkers set to his sister, which was respectable both in appearance and substance.

It turned out that in this era lacking in entertainment, small games that required a bit of thinking, like Chinese Checkers, were quite popular. After learning the rules, Armand played against himself left-handed and right-handed all night.