Chapter 008: Province of Siluo

After a week of travel, Du Fan and the army of the Lani Empire finally arrived at the province at the southern tip of the Shagaven Empire—Du Fan’s fiefdom, the Province of Siluo.
“Duke Du Fan, we will part here. But rest assured, I will fulfill the conditions I promised,” said Leopold, smiling at Du Fan and performing the highest form of noble courtesy.
“Thank you, Your Highness. Oh, no—Your Highness Leopold of the Lani Empire,” Du Fan replied with a mysterious smile, the meaning of which only he seemed to understand.
“Ah! You’re terrifying. I hope we won’t meet on the battlefield again,” Leopold said, staring at Du Fan for a long time. He couldn’t fathom how many secrets lay hidden behind the boy’s constant smile. Du Fan fell into Leopold’s category of terrifying individuals; unless absolutely necessary, Leopold didn’t want to provoke such a menace.
“If possible, you should rest well. After all, the empire is not stable following the coup,” Du Fan advised sincerely. Though he wasn’t sure if this alliance still existed, neither of them wanted to break the fragile peace.
Watching Leopold leave with his massive army, Du Fan felt a sense of lonely heroism.
“Young master, Doha City, our capital, is ahead,” Old Mark said softly.
“Grandpa Mark, have we completed the task? Are any of our soldiers hurt?” Du Fan respected his bodyguard and servant greatly, as Old Mark had protected him since he was young.
“As you expected, they sent nearly a thousand soldiers to escort the gold coins to the capital. We intercepted them all and silenced the escort soldiers. None of our men were hurt.”
“Heh, that’s great. Let’s return to my domain to take a look,” Du Fan said, overjoyed at the news. He had secretly obtained fifty million gold coins—equivalent to half a year’s worth of the empire’s taxes—more than enough to build a province.
“Is this… Doha City?” Though he was prepared for the poor condition of his domain, Du Fan still couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Young master, the captain leading this group, Simbat, has been here before. He’s certain this is Doha City. He’s already gone ahead.”

Glancing at Du Fan standing beside him, Old Mark spoke in a low voice. Just like Du Fan, he could hardly believe that this was the only city in the Doha Province when he first saw it.

Doha City was built on a plain. Initially, cities on such plains all had tall and sturdy city walls on all four sides. But now, Du Fan could hardly see those tall walls at all. Everything was in ruins; most of the once-tall walls had collapsed, and through the gaps, he could see the buildings inside the city.

The carriage soon arrived at the city gates of Doha City. Rather than calling it city gates, it was more like arriving between two peculiar structures. The original gates had long since disappeared, with only two bare, tall pillars remaining as evidence of the city’s former prosperity.

Getting off the carriage and asking Old Mark to take care of the four Temple Knights, Du Fan walked alone into Doha City at a slow pace.

It was desolate—far beyond the word “desolate” to describe it. Surrounded by nearly collapsed city walls, the entire city resembled a slightly larger village. There were no shops typical of a city, no signs of prosperity, and even the houses were simply built from wood and stones. Only the wide stone road running through the city remained intact, connecting the two long-gone city gates without a speck of dust.

Walking heavily on the stone road, Du Fan noticed that everyone was pale and emaciated, dressed in tattered clothes, and appeared listless—without exception.

“Ha! Ha! Hee! Hee!”

Young voices kept coming from a relatively large courtyard. Du Fan found these voices familiar—they were the same as those he used to make when exercising under his father’s supervision as a child.

“If you don’t train hard, how will you be able to cultivate combat energy in the future and protect our families?” An old man, pale and emaciated but full of energy, walked slowly among a group of teenagers. These children were doing what Du Fan had done as a child—lifting stone weights to strengthen their arms.

“You are the hope of our Doha City. The king has abandoned us, and all the nobles have abandoned us, but we must not abandon ourselves,” the old man continued to shout.

“Young master, someone is living in the city lord’s mansion. I tried to drive them away just now, which is why I’m late. Please forgive me,” Simbat suddenly appeared beside Du Fan, speaking with a guilty expression.

“Who are you?” Sinbat’s words made the old man aware of their presence. He immediately turned around, adopting a defensive stance, and cautiously eyed the strangers before him.
“Elsik, don’t you recognize me?” Sinbat stepped out from behind the wall, smiling at the old man.
“Sinbat? It’s you!” Elsik exclaimed in delight upon seeing Sinbat.
“Elsik, this is the new lord of the Siluo Province, Duke Du Fan Green.” Out of courtesy, Sinbat introduced Du Fan to Elsik first.
“Hello, Lord,” Elsik said indifferently before warmly taking Sinbat’s hand and saying, “Why have you come this time? Anyway, you must stay here for a while. I’ll go get some delicious MagicMagic meat meat for you right away.”
Du Fan felt awkward; compared to Sinbat, Elsik was very indifferent toward him.
Uh!
“Elsik, I’m not leaving this time. Have you seen our new lord? He’s the most renowned Duke Du Fan in the imperial capital, and he’s also a white-robed priest of the Church. He’s here to govern the Siluo Province properly.” Sinbat noticed Elsik’s coldness and, while speaking, introduced Du Fan’s identity, also reminding Elsik of everything.
Hearing that Sinbat wasn’t leaving, Elsik was stunned for a moment before almost jumping for joy. With Sinbat’s personal protection, Du Fan’s status in Elsik’s eyes soared instantly.
“Lord, please forgive my unintentional offense,” Elsik finally regained his composure. He bowed respectfully to Du Fan, his face filled with remorse.
“Hehe, it’s nothing,” Du Fan said with a smile. He wasn’t the kind of stingy person.
“By the way, Elsik, who’s living in the city lord’s mansion now? I tried to drive them away, but they still wouldn’t leave. Now that the lord has arrived, I guess I’ll have to throw them out by force,” Sinbat said angrily, remembering the person in the mansion.
“Uh! That’s Lilith Jose, the youngest sister of the former lord. She’s the only surviving noble of the Jose family. Since the entire family of the previous lord was killed six years ago, she’s lived here ever since. But now that the lord has arrived, I’ll go talk to her right away,” Elsik sighed, his tone filled with helplessness.

“Isn’t the lord’s mansion quite large? It doesn’t matter if there’s one more person. Never mind, there’s no need to drive her away.” Ever since he saw the true nature of the nobles in the capital, Du Fan had developed a strong aversion toward their ways. Of course, he didn’t want to become someone he despised himself.

“Thank you, lord. You are too kind. I thank you on behalf of Lilith for your generosity,” Eirik said gratefully as soon as he heard that Duke had no objection to Lilith staying in the lord’s mansion.

Waving his hand, Du Fan accepted Eirik’s thanks with a smile. Suddenly, he remembered something and asked, “How long has it been since the city walls were last built? I really don’t know how you protect yourselves. Now that I’m here, the first thing I’ll do is rebuild the walls.”

“Rebuild the walls? That’s easy enough. Not to mention where to find all those massive stones, just the gold coins required for construction are astronomical.” Shaking his head, Eirik continued helplessly, “Our place has become a forgotten corner of the empire. Although the food supply comes twice a year in a timely manner, the ruthless Marquis Zebren of the Lionheart Family seizes a portion of it when it passes through the Province of Naihil. And even the food that does reach the city of Doha has to be shared with those bandit gangs; otherwise, with no defensive walls, we have nothing to protect ourselves from their raids.”

“There are bandits here too?” Du Fan was shocked. It was unbelievable that bandits, let alone organized gangs, existed in such a poor place.

“Not only bandits, but five entire gangs. They were originally ordinary people from nearby provinces. But due to frequent wars here, ordinary people can’t farm, so they united and make a living by robbing the provinces of Saint Ciro and Parsen. Every June and July, they come and take away nearly half of our food. If we resist even slightly, they immediately kill us. The last lord was killed by the Irakil gang, the lowest-ranked among the five bandit gangs.”