Cecil arranged the most comfortable residence for guests from the royal capital, not in the Lord's Mansion, but in an independent building under the Government Affairs Office near the Lord's Mansion. It is said that this building was built specifically to welcome important guests and was called "Autumn Palace" by the Cecils because it was completed this autumn.

This novel arrangement once again made visitors feel the uniqueness of the Principality of Cecil.

The Duke of Victoria leaned a little lazy on the soft and comfortable couch, relaxing her limbs, which were slightly stiff due to the fatigue of the journey and dinner, and carefully observing all the furnishings in the room. To be honest, the furnishings here are not matched with the word "luxury". Although the things are exquisite, they are completely different from the rooms in the Silver Castle, but the things here are still impressive.

All lighting facilities here rely on magic crystals as the core. This cheap and simple light emitting device is difficult to popularize because it requires continuous injecting magic. However, in Cecil, it is something that can be seen everywhere on the streets and alleys. The room is as warm as spring, but the fireplace on the west side is not lit. Obviously, the fireplace is not a heating facility, but just a kind of decoration. The real heating here is solved by something called the "magic thermal system". Large and bright curtains are hung in front of the large floor-to-ceiling windows. The weaving method of the fabric is very strange, the needle method is simple, and even a sense of cheapness, but its neatness is surprising, just like an old weaver with skilled craftsmanship has weaved such a cheap and simple fabric without sleeping...

The brunette maid Maggie stood behind Victoria and massaged the tight muscles on the hostess' shoulders with a gentle technique. She felt the muscles under her fingers relax a little bit, and the brunette maid whispered: "You have been observing everything here."

"Is it? So obvious?" Victoria's tone rose a little, and her body stretched more lazily. She could maintain the perfect state in any unofficial occasion, but now it was her time to relax herself. She sighed, "I regret not bringing a mediocre and shallow nobleman of the capital to act as a 'flower guard'. He could ask every novel thing on my behalf. There are so many things here that I can't understand, but I have asked too many 'why' along the way."

"There are indeed many novel things here, but it seems to be just various magical devices. It is not more advanced than the magical mechanism you have arranged in Winter Castle, right?" Maggie said his opinion. "The Cecils use magic crystal lamps to illuminate the inner court of Winter Castle. Their doors can be opened automatically, and the same is true for your mage tower. Ah, they also have magic cars that can drive automatically, but they are not faster than the dragon and blood horse, and they can't beat your white-feathered griffin."

Obviously, in the eyes of the brunette maid, her mistress was so confused by Cecil's dazzling "tricks" that she cared too much about the novel and interesting magic devices, but Victoria shook her head: "No, Maggie, you don't understand that any magic devices of the Cecil people did not surprise me. What really surprised me is that each of them has thousands of magic devices."

Maggie paused a little while the finger pressed on the hostess' shoulder.

"Gao Wen is pushing the extraordinary power to everyone, he is breaking the boundary between the extraordinary and the ordinary. The terrible thing about things is that he is not only qualified to do this, but he has also done it," Victoria sat up and her expression became serious. "I can't figure out how he did..."

The black-haired maid did not answer, and the Duchess did not expect to hear the answer from the maid. She just shook her head: "Maggie, bring those 'newspapers' and I want to take a look."

"yes."

A stack of newspapers was sent to Victoria. Looking at this kind of thing that was also unheard of elsewhere, she couldn't help but sigh softly: "Start with letting the civilians learn to read..."

The envoys from the north of the capital have never been exposed to [.] This kind of thing called newspapers, but it has long been in the southern border of every ordinary person and can be read by everyone. It is incredibly cheap. Many intelligence information that the northern aristocracy, which seemed to be "confidential" were spread publicly in the Principal of Cecil, including the price of food, the appointment and removal of officials from various places, and the construction of new towns, which should be unique to the masters of the nobles, are allowed to be discussed here by the common people, as long as they have learned basic literacy and writing skills in school.

The others in the envoy probably hadn't noticed this kind of thing called newspapers, but Victoria had noticed it as early as when she left the Rock Fortress and passed through Kant City. At that time, a "newsboy" was selling such prints along the street. The whim Dukewoman ordered someone to buy a copy, and then she was deeply shocked by the thing.

Her eyes quickly swept through the contents of prices, construction, and current affairs, but she thought in her heart that it was difficult for her to want a statistical data on transit merchants before leaving Pompeii.

But what the Dukemother cares more about is the commentary articles about current affairs in the newspaper.

"Maggie... do you know? If we have this in our hands, we don't have to consider whether the nobles and citizens support it when the crown prince of Wales was crowned," Victoria Yangyang's newspaper in her hand, her tone full of helplessness. "We can even make people in the East begin to doubt their lords and princes."

"Do you want to distribute something like that in Saint Sunil... or the plain of the Holy Spirit?"

Victoria's voice was exhausted: "It's useless, our people are illiterate, and the nobles of the Holy Spirit Plain and the royal capital will not allow the farmers to put down their hoes and run to read and read, and then question them after they understand the truth."

She only said half of the words, but she didn't say the rest: If she hadn't seen a lot of information about Lu'an City with her own eyes, her own thoughts would be similar to those of the royal capital and the plain nobles...

No, it would be better to say that once the nobles in the royal capital and the plains knew what happened in Lu'an City, they would not dare to let the people recognize their words.

A breeze blew from the side, and Victoria stopped talking to Maggie. She looked at a corner of the room and nodded slightly: "Crow, you are back."

A figure wearing black soft leather armor emerged from the air. The royal shadow guard "Crow" who once belonged to Frances II and now obeyed the regent's orders, bowed to Victoria: "Duke, there is nothing unusual around this building."

"It seems that our founding hero is open and upright," Victoria nodded, but her eyes couldn't help but sweep over the "newspaper" at hand. Then she looked at the Royal Film Guard not far away, "Have you found out what happened?"

"Besides us, there seemed to be another group of visitors in this city. I heard that they were a group of merchants, but they lived some distance from the 'castle' and had to cross the outpost in the middle. We were worried that we would be discovered, so we did not go to investigate."

"A group of businessmen..." Victoria said lightly, as if she was talking to herself, "It is rumored that the founding hero really likes 'doing business'... He rose rapidly by relying on the power of businessmen."

Dark Crow lowered his head: "Do you want to investigate the situation of those merchants?"

"No need, it's not a wise move to alarm the other guests of the host," Victoria shook her head, then her eyes suddenly fell on the shoulders of the Raven, her voice turning a little cold, "Also, you have been discovered."

"...ah?!" Dark Crow was shocked and noticed the hostess' sight. The royal shadow guard immediately turned around and finally noticed something strange on the back of his shoulder. He reached out to grab it, but he found a small note in the gap in the leather armor.

Seeing the content on the note, the royal shadow guard's face suddenly changed:

"Yo, take a walk? The Shadow Goddess's daughter stayed."

"Dukesmaid" Crow immediately crawled on the ground, with a hint of shame and a trembling voice, "I...I'm careless..."

A blood-coagulable ice cone seemed to have formed behind his neck. The Royal Shadow Guard felt his nerves and blood were getting colder little by little. However, the next second, the bone-bone-cold feeling subsided like a tide. He heard the duchess's voice coming from the front: "Get up."

The Raven broke out in a cold sweat and stood up like a new life. Victoria opposite him sighed: "Gaowen Cecil has trained Ansu's first batch of royal shadow guards. There will definitely be the most powerful shadow master around him. It is normal for you to be no match for you. After canceling all the secret actions afterwards, the Shadow Master who has never appeared only gave us a warning this time, but when Cecil speaks publicly, it may not be just a warning."

Jay breathed a sigh of relief. Although he wanted to say that he should know the "Shadow Goddess's biological daughter" who left a note on him. The other party was not a shadow master at all. When fighting head-on, it was probably a little bit stronger than goose. But as an adult with normal intelligence, he would be willing to overestimate the power of the half-elves as much as possible...

"Since you have been discovered, do something else," Victoria continued. "You leave the city first, follow our second convoy to enter the city the day after tomorrow, and then go to the places that are allowed to visit in Cecil. I want you to focus on three things."

"Please give me instructions."

"Observe how Cecil manages 'people' and understand why their efficiency is so high; observe what ordinary people here talk about most on weekdays, understand what the Principality of Cecil looks like in their eyes; finally, observe their market, I want you and other shadow guards to record everything they sell on their market, including the approximate price changes, and then inquire about the origin of those things, the daily sales situation, and their way of managing the market."

"yes."

The figure of the Raven disappeared into the air, and a moment later, Maggie looked at her hostess: "You finally mentioned the market for Cecilians... Are you trying to figure out how the business of Duke Cecil's is working?"

"This is one of the purposes," Victoria nodded, "but more importantly, it is to understand how strong Duke Cecil is after capturing this land. We have all the routes from Rock Fortress to Cecil City. Their routes are planned, and what we can see is also planned markets, and it is the only way for us to understand other areas in the southern border."
Chapter completed!