Planning a Territory

As the sun rises over the Northern Territory, the people living Northern Territory begin a new day.

Aila lived in an unnamed village in the Snow Bear Territory. She was all alone because her parents had gone to search for the Northern Lands Society when she was very young.

After hearing that the Northern Lands Society was a wonderful place where there was no need to burn wood for heating all year round and that food was plentiful, her parents embarked on a journey to find the Northern Lands Society.

They placed Aila in the care of their neighbors because Aila was not yet a year old at the time, and taking her along would only lead to Aila death during the journey.

Then, I don't know if they found her or not, but there was no further news.

As the sun began to rise, Aila put on her leather gloves and went out into the woods.

These people living in the Northern Territory can use a special berry from the Northern Territory as their staple food. After years of cultivation in their village, the yield of this berry has long exceeded everyone's needs, and every year a lot of berries rot in the warehouse.

The reason why the population of the people in the Northern Territory has never increased is another reason: the cold, a cold that the human body cannot withstand on its own.

In the midst of a bitter cold, it can even be the bizarre sight of a stove still burning while a person has already frozen to death.

Therefore, the people of the Northern Territory need a lot of fuel, and they even need to keep their stoves burning at all times, otherwise they will not have enough heat to last a day.

Aila's family was running out of wood, so she had to go to the north of the village to cut some more.

This type of wood requires no special treatment and can burn for a long time with ample heat, making it the best choice for Aila if she wants to survive.

But today, just as she was about to step out of the wall made of sharpened wood, she heard a commotion.

"You can't do this! I'm the lord's appointed official; I need to see the lord."

When she looked up, she saw a scene that made her wonder if she was even fully awake.

To everyone's astonishment, the most arrogant man in the village, who called himself the lord's steward, was in such a state of disarray.

She saw this scene, and although she didn't know what had happened, seeing it made her happy.

Aila disliked the official, or rather, not many people in the entire village liked him.

This official often uses excuses like road repairs or wall construction to take life-saving timber from them, threatening that if they don't hand it over, there will be no more knights to eliminate Magic Creature.

Logically speaking, paying the fee for eliminating the Magic Creature is something these people should do, because the threat of Magic Creature is also a problem for their survival in the Northern Territory.

However, this official often overcharged for many things that didn't actually exist, and they had to distinguish which ones were the real taxes to be paid to the lord.

They had been dealing with this clerk for a long time and had gotten used to him making up taxes they had never heard of and making them pay them.

They will carefully consider the matter before deciding whether to submit or not.

They weren't afraid that the official would misappropriate the taxes they had submitted and then claim that the taxes were insufficient, because if the taxes couldn't be paid, the official would also face punishment from the lord.

Even if those knights do come here to inquire about the situation, they will at most need to submit a supplementary copy, but the official in charge will be in trouble.

Despite this, the residents, who were exhausted from constantly battling wits with this official, simply didn't want to see him.

That's why Aila was so happy when she saw the officer lose his composure like that, but after hearing what they were saying next, her smile froze.

"This is also your lord's order. Don't you see that knight carrying the lord's warrant?"

"I'm in charge here now, and I've made that very clear."

Then, Aila watched as the officer knelt before another knight who had come with him, repeatedly recounting his hardships.

Anyway, the officer was taken away by the knight, while the woman with the special attire remained behind.

Aila looked at the woman, somewhat curious about the content of their conversation.

Anna's outfit was something she had seen just two weeks ago; back then, countless people dressed like that were appearing on the roadside, seemingly searching for something.

The officer at the time instructed everyone to stay inside the house and avoid coming out as much as possible.

She did as she was told, because she had a gut feeling that people who were looking for something weren't good people.

Aila tilted her head and looked at Anna standing on the snow, surveying the layout of the entire village. She heard Anna muttering something to herself.

"Where are we going to find a house to build all that stuff? I have to mobilize all the villagers... It seems like the official's house is pretty good; let's use that one."

Aila watched Anna walk into the village. Although Aila was very curious about Anna, she knew that now was not the time to be curious.

"I still need to go up the mountain to cut some wood," Aila said, exhaling a breath of hot air.

She stopped standing on the snow and instead picked up her Axe and started walking up the mountain.

The interior of Fran's dormitory at the Northern Lands Society.

Fran was packing her bags for the trip. She was going to Snow Bear Territory again, not for a mission, but for an experiment.

She stared blankly at the several articles about territory analysis that had been printed out in her hand.

She had read these articles about territories, which described how mages had tried to obtain territorial blessings.

The settlements of people can affect changes in the boundaries of a territory, and if the people living there change their mindset, the territory can change hands.

These patterns have long been figured out by the mages, but all attempts to claim territory have failed so far.

Almost all the Paper attribute this to another aspect, namely, Profession issues.

They believed that a knight was able to acquire territory and become a lord because his Profession included accepting land, which allowed him to become a lord.

Apart from Profession like knights, almost no other Profession can become a lord through territory, let alone a mage.

Therefore, many monks, after studying for a long time, only find that there is no way to solve the problem, and they have no choice but to give up and devote themselves to other fields.

Fran sought out these Paper on the blessing of territories in order to find a way for her to truly obtain the blessing of territories as a mage.

Fran still possesses a token of territory in the Antir Region, which is currently being managed by someone she knows.

After Fran reached the second tier, she had the idea of reclaiming that territory, but first she had to confirm whether she could truly gain the territory's recognition and become a lord.

After learning about the attempts of other mages and incorporating knowledge from Fran's previous life on Earth, Fran roughly had two approaches to solve this problem.

The first approach is to focus on her Profession. Fran's Panel showed the Territory Knight Profession quite early on. Logically, Fran should be able to fulfill the requirements for obtaining the Profession by going to White Flower Territory, finding Finley, and getting a knight title from him.

However, after carefully learning about the Territory Knight Profession, she gave up the idea of obtaining Profession. The reason was simple: the Territory Knight Profession had some drawbacks.

This is one of the few Profession Fran has ever seen that has negative effects.

As one of the most numerous Profession on the continent, the reason why there are so many Territory Knight is largely due to their stability and the ability to inherit their professions.

Territory Knight are the only Formal Rank power that can be inherited. As long as you can obtain the knight title left by your father, and as long as you are not a terrible person, you can be promoted to Formal Rank.

This inheritability gave rise to countless territorial families, and maintaining a family's strength based on its territory was a very 'advanced' system on the continent.

Indeed, Fran used the term "advanced" because this kind of inheritability is truly important.

Many families have fallen because of this inheritance problem. Take the Alliance Fran belongs to, for example. Many Mage Family have declined because their descendants have not produced any mages for a long time.

This system, which can stably produce Formal Rank Profession, is extremely 'advanced' on this continent, which explains why there are so many Territory Knight.

However, as a price to pay, Territory Knight also have many negative effects.

For example, restrictions such as difficulty in promotion and the inability to leave the territory are nothing compared to what Fran finds most unbearable: the characteristic of Territory Knight being linked to their territory.

What does this mean? It means that the territory itself will affect the strength of the Territory Knight. When there is famine or the people are suffering in your territory, your strength will be severely weakened.

Conversely, if your territory prospers, your strength will also increase.

This forces Fran to devote some of her energy to governing her territory, but frankly, it's not worth it.

By choosing a few Profession, Fran can easily gain power that surpasses the blessings of a territory.

Fran was looking for a method that would grant her territorial buffs without any negative consequences, which was also what most mages desired.

At her current stage, she definitely needs a sufficiently large space and enough manpower to realize some of her ideas.

Putting aside other things, much of the knowledge she has on Earth requires a high level of industrialization to support it; otherwise, some knowledge cannot be put into practice.

Fran ruled out this line of thought, while the second line of thought came from Fran's experience in her previous life.

This line of thinking is the system. Fran was able to realize that the key to the territory's blessing actually lies in the people. Many mages have also realized this.

Perhaps, under these circumstances, establishing a relatively complete system in another world could provide some assistance in enhancing the research territory.

This requires drawing upon the knowledge of the Law School.