Seven days ago, Chen Xian sent a message to Chapman, Owen, and Natasha to summon all the apprentices who were working as officials in the territory and gather them in the castle to await his orders.
Yesterday, he told the three of them to clear out the castle and gather all the apprentices in the castle hall to await further instructions.
Back in New Umborit, Feng Chou did not explain anything. He took out an ornate staff that was inlaid with gemstones. After spending a few minutes, he finally succeeded in summoning a magical gate that was covered with complicated patterns. It seemed to be illusory and real at the same time, and it was shining with a faint blue light.
When the gate opened, Feng Chou ordered Owen and Natasha to organize the apprentices to enter the gate.
Due to their trust in Feng Chou, Chapman's family, Owen, Natasha, and the apprentices carried out his orders without hesitation.
After everyone teleported away, Feng Chou teleported to Amborite Port Town and called for an emergency meeting with the town's officials.
During the meeting, he appointed a new butler of the castle and announced that from today onwards, the council of the fief would become the highest authority in the fief. They would exercise the sovereignty of the fief on his behalf and he would entrust the management of the fief to the council.
As a magus who could teleport over long distances at any time, Feng Chou wasn't worried about losing control of the fief. The management system he established in the fief was also proven to be reasonable after a year of testing. The separation of authority and mutual restraint between officials allowed the officials to settle their own affairs.
After settling the matters of the fief, Feng Chou used his Teleportation Staff to leave once more.
After returning to Stellin Manor, Feng Chou first introduced his current situation to the others who had just teleported over, as well as the name he was now using, Auston Stuart. He reminded them not to mention Casablanca and New Amborite in Stellin Manor.
After that, he brought them to familiarize themselves with the castle.
Stellin Castle was a palace-style castle. The outer walls of the castle were ten meters tall and three meters thick. They were made of stone and were constructed with magic. At each of the four corners of the walls was a 20-meter-tall circular stone tower that protruded out of the walls. The stone tower had four floors and each floor, including the top, was equipped with three and six-pound cannons.
All the defensive functions of the castle were concentrated on the eighty-meter-long walls. Inside the walls was an exquisite palace-style villa garden.
In the centre of the garden was a four-story Barlow -style building. In front of the building was a large square with a fountain in the middle. The square was surrounded by neatly built gardens.
The stables and other functional buildings were located at the back of the castle courtyard and were separated from the main building by a small forest.
After showing everyone around the castle, Feng Chou directly appointed Chapman as the chief steward of the castle, appointed Natasha as the chief knight, and appointed Owen as the mayor of the only town in the territory.
Feng Chou also assigned the scholars among the apprentices to Chapman and Owen as officials of the fief. He assigned the knight apprentices to Natasha and had her build the skeleton of the fief's guards. The rogue apprentices and magus apprentices were temporarily assigned as attendants of the castle.
After the simple arrangements, Feng Chou let Chapman take care of everyone's food and lodging.
The four-story castle building had a total of sixty to seventy rooms. The first floor was the banquet hall, kitchen and other functional buildings, as well as the quarters of the chefs and cooks. The second floor was the banquet hall, lounge, guest rooms, game room, small gathering hall and other functional buildings, as well as the quarters of the upper-class servants. The third floor was the master's office, meeting room and reception room. The fourth floor was the master's living quarters. There was a living room, a servant's room, a bar and other rooms.
There were also servants' rooms on both sides of the main building.
With so many rooms, it was easy to find a place for dozens of apprentices.
After a night's rest, Feng Chou took Chapman, Owen, Natasha, as well as the scholars and knights among the apprentices to tour the fief. He introduced them, especially Chapman, Owen and Natasha, as officials of the fief, to the agricultural officials, the fief officials and the captain of the militia in the fief's villages.
In the next few days, Feng Chou used Chapman, Owen and Natasha as the core and the apprentices as the core to build the fief's management system.
He used the apprentices as clerks, judges, tax officials and other intermediate officials under Chapman and Owen. After two years of training in the New Amborite, these apprentices had already become qualified officials of the fief.
Feng Chou also used the apprentices as the core to select qualified militia to form the fief's retainer guards. These extremely talented apprentices had undergone nearly three years of training. Except for a few who were too young, most of them had already advanced to the intermediate level. Therefore, even though they were still young, they were enough to control a group of level three or four militia members.
Feng Chou used the rogue apprentices to form a scouting team for the fief. He had them try to explore the wilderness around the fief and collect information on the nearby creatures.
As for the apprentices, who had the least number of apprentices, Feng Chou appointed them as his personal attendants and messengers.
Feng Chou also recruited some young people from the fief with clean family backgrounds to serve as low-level servants in the castle.
Such a group of immature young people was not enough to protect a rich Baron's fief. Feng Chou also went to the Mage Union and bought a batch of golems from the union's alchemy shop.
In fact, Feng Chou wanted to buy the Bone Golems the most. These golems were fast, had good defense, and were immune to magic. Most importantly, they were cheap. It was most suitable to buy a large number of them to guard a house. However, they were made from the bones of magical creatures and looked quite scary. If he bought them to patrol the fief, he was afraid that it would scare away the ignorant fief's people.
Although the famous steel golems were powerful, they were slow. They were much more suitable to be used on the battlefield than to be used as a guard. Moreover, they were too expensive. They cost two million crowns each.
In the end, Feng Chou bought ten Magic Wood Golems. These golems were made of magical wood, and their energy was provided by Magic Permanence. They were equipped with a set of super thick black steel armor.
The ten Magic Wood Golems that Feng Chou bought were all high-grade goods. The bodies were made of mid-grade and high-grade magic wood, and they were equipped with enchanted + 5 armor. Their strength was comparable to that of a level-13 warrior, and their speed was not slow either. They could also cast a few special spells, and their overall challenge level was above level-10.
These Magic Wood Golems cost two hundred thousand crowns, which was less than one-tenth of the price of the famous steel golems. However, when used to guard a house, they were not much worse than the steel golems. They were a very popular type of golems recently.
Feng Chou planned to integrate these ten golems into the fief's guards.
Feng Chou then released the slaves he bought from the Qiankun Pagoda and gave them to Natasha to command.
These slaves had their non-existent memories created by the Qiankun Pagoda's illusions. They all thought that they had been locked in the cabin all this time, and were suddenly teleported to this manor by their master. They did not know that they had been locked in a dimensional space.
With these weapons, the defense of Sterling Manor would be enough.
Coupled with the reputation of the manor's owner as a high-grade magician, most people who had bad intentions would give up on them.
After settling Sterling Manor, Feng Chou teleported away again.