After a day and a night of marching, Dalia's core guard legion arrived in the heart of Baron von Klei's Territory.
Fang Zhen was among the legion and arrived with them.
The core of Baron von Klei's Territory was also a small city, much larger than Redstone Town, but not as grand as Viscount Ashton's Territory.
For a Baron's Domain, it was managed quite well.
Near Baron von Kleist's castle, Fang Zhen and Dalia t with allied forces.
The one who had co to reinforce Dalia was her godfather, Viscount Perrington himself.
Together, Fang Zhen and Dalia t with Viscount Perrington, who was protected by his legion.
'Before the eting, Fang Zhen had been contemplating Viscount Perrington's intentions. Dalia trusted her godfather completely, but given the rules of the ga among nobles, could there really be soone who would disregard their own interests to fully support their nominal goddaughter?'
But after learning a bit about Viscount Perrington's background, and especially after eting Perrington in person, Fang Zhen started to believe it was possible.
Perrington was over sixty, perhaps even older than sixty-five. His hair was snow-white, and he was tall and thin. He was still hale and hearty enough to wear a Knight's armor.
But judging from his appearance, Viscount Perrington's face was full of benevolence. He looked like a completely peaceful old man, with no hint of ambition or desire for conquest.
'Looking at Perrington's disposition and appearance, Fang Zhen thought that the Viscount was probably just getting old. His testosterone levels must be severely low, replaced by oxytocin and serotonin.'
Testosterone is a male hormone. The higher the level of testosterone in the blood, the more pronounced a man's masculine traits. They also tend to be more irritable, aggressive, and have a greater desire for conquest. Their muscles and Adam's apple will also be more prominent.
After a certain age, or when the body's functions decline, the concentration of testosterone in a man's blood decreases year by year. It is replaced by serotonin and oxytocin, which stabilize emotions and induce feelings of peace and pleasure. The latter is similar to a female hormone.
Perrington looked quite wise, but any obvious signs of high testosterone were gone.
Seeing Perrington like this, Fang Zhen felt much more at ease.
Moreover, he had heard from Dalia that Viscount Perrington originally had three children, but they had all died young. His wife had also died during her last childbirth. In that respect, Perrington's situation was a bit like Dalia's—neither had an heir.
Emotionally, Perrington treated Dalia like his own daughter. He even wanted to leave his domain to Dalia's care after his death, but the Kingdom's laws of noble succession prevented him from doing so.
Fang Zhen now understood why Dalia trusted Perrington so much.
Even he felt a sense of ease and trust upon eting the old Viscount. Old Perrington seed to have no desires left; aside from benevolent care, he didn't pose the slightest threat.
At that mont, Fang Zhen and Dalia stood at the head of their army, eting with Perrington, who had dismounted.
"Godfather." Seeing Perrington, Dalia couldn't hold back her emotions, and her eyes welled up with tears.
"Dalia, you've suffered. I heard about what happened to Little Vic," Perrington said, his eyes filled with sorrow.
At the ntion of Little Vic, Dalia's eyes reddened again.
Perrington's gaze shifted to Fang Zhen, a look of surprise in his eyes.
"What a powerful build. You must possess great strength and exquisite martial skills; I can see it in your confident eyes," Perrington said. "You must be Knight Fang Zhen, then? I read about your deeds in Dalia's letters. You are a truly brave Warrior."
Fang Zhen gave a slight nod.
'He had been in the Naless World for so ti now and had discovered that the culture here was different from that of Xia Country. Modesty was not valued; if you were too polite, people would take your humble words at face value and look down on you.'
Hearing Perrington praise Fang Zhen, Dalia seed overjoyed, gazing lovingly at his profile.
Perrington was worldly-wise and clearly saw the nature of Fang Zhen and Dalia's relationship, but he didn't say anything.
"Let's go to Von Klei's castle and see what that cunning Baron left behind," Perrington said.
Fang Zhen, Dalia, and Perrington led their troops to Baron von Kleist's castle.
The soldiers guarding the city had already heard news of Von Klei's defeat, but they weren't sure if the Baron was dead, so they hadn't dared to loot the castle's wealth and flee.
But upon seeing the combined forces of Perrington and Dalia, and learning of Von Klei's depraved fall and death, the Knight's Squires in the castle sized up the situation, wisely chose to give up resistance, and opened the castle gates.
Fang Zhen and the others entered the castle.
The process wasn't dangerous, so Fang Zhen had ti to talk with Perrington about the Kingdom's political situation.
In their conversation, he learned that this Kingdom, called Zambein, was one of the three great kingdoms on the continent, and its political situation was quite tense.
Within Zambein, there were three powerful Dukes. Two of them were in serious conflict with each other, while the third was deep and calculating, showing no clear allegiance, and was thus tentatively considered to be of the King's faction.
The Queen's family was also very complex. Her family held the title of Duke in the Kingdom, but at the sa ti, they also held a high-ranking Count's title in a neighboring country. The King had relied on the strength of the Queen's family to stabilize his position, but now they had grown too powerful to control. The Queen's family was competing with the King for power on several fronts.
Not only that, but the Zambein Kingdom also had friction and conflicts with neighboring countries over various territorial and comrcial issues.
One result of these conflicts among the Kingdom's upper echelons was that they trickled down, causing the lower-ranking nobles to constantly engage in all sorts of friction, attacking each other under various pretexts.
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