Claude woke up very early. Had it been the old Chen Xi before he transmigrated, he would only wake up at noon to go to work due to his busy nightlife. But now that he was Claude, he had no choice but to wake up early. He was even used to waking up at five in the morning.
Every six in the morning, the war god hall at the eastern end of town would ring the heavy horned bell. The clear sound of the bell would ring throughout the entire town, signifying the beginning of a new day.
Whitestag would also wake up from its slumber and regain its liveliness. The sounds of carriages and hawkers would soon fill the streets and alleys.
The morning glow dyed the entire sky red. It seemed that it would be a sunny day.
Good weather meant that there would be plenty of light and there wouldn't be a need for oil lamps for morning reading.
Claude rubbed his face and sat in front of his desk. He picked up his grammar book and started reading.
He had always thought of himself as a pitiful transmigrator because he didn't have a system, a portable space or a grandpa in his ring.
Wasn't transmigration supposed to have a cheat?
It took Claude half a year to confirm that he didn't have any. The only unusual thing about him was his keen hearing, which allowed him to hear the whispers of others from far away.
The other thing was his imagination. Sometimes, when he heard his parents talking downstairs, he could imagine the living room and his parents' every move.
A new world meant new languages and knowledge. He had studied for more than ten years in his previous life, but he didn't expect to have to go back to school after transmigrating. Could there be a more unfortunate transmigrator?
Not to mention, the original owner of the body he transmigrated into was a slacker who ranked near the bottom of his class.
In order to understand this new world, he had no choice but to study hard so that he could better assimilate into it.
The bell rang and the melodious sound echoed in the sky.
Soon, he heard the sound of footsteps and doors opening downstairs. His mother had woken up to prepare breakfast for the family.
Claude tossed his grammar book on the table. Fifteen minutes later, he had finished preparing everything he needed to revise.
Thanks to his hard work over the past three months, his grades in class had improved by leaps and bounds.
However, in order to hide his incompetence, he would purposely make a few mistakes during the monthly tests to prevent himself from accidentally becoming first in class and arousing suspicion.
After all, the original owner of this body's results were far too terrible. It was already shocking enough for him to improve by ten or twenty places. If he were to get first place out of the 63 people in his class, he didn't even dare to imagine what would happen.
Therefore, to him, even if it was a very simple course, grades were not important. What was important was to understand this new world through learning.
"Mutton pancake!
Freshly baked lamb pancake … "
"Honey!
High-quality Osmanthus Honey!
From a sweet mouth to a sweet heart … "
"Apples, selling apples!
Sir, three Fennies for a boiled apple, thank you … "
From the street came the cries of vendors, as well as the rumble of hard wheels rolling across the street.
`Good morning, Mrs. Field.
Do you need milk today?
Fresh milk, fresh from the ranch. "
It was Uncle Green's voice. He had a small ranch in the hills north of the town and raised more than ten cows.
He would wake up before dawn every day, milk the cows, and rush to town before the horn bell rang to deliver the milk to the customers who placed a deposit.
As for the extra milk, he would sell it on the streets and only drive the old carriage back when it was all sold.
Even though Mother wasn't a customer of Uncle Green's milk, Uncle Green would often come over to ask about it due to his father's relationship with Mother.
"Good morning, Old Green. Let me have a look first," Mother said after a while, "It's really fresh milk. Give me a jug."
Claude shook his head. Mother must have taken the huge silver jug out to buy milk again. One jug of milk from that jug was equivalent to two jugs from other customers.
As expected, Mother asked, "Is one sunar enough?"
"Yes, it's enough," Uncle Green said, "One jug for one sunar. That's how I sell it."
"Thank you, Brother Green." Mother knew that she was being taken advantage of, but she was already used to it.
Claude's father, Morssen Ferd, was the chief administrator of Whitestag. He could be considered a respectable person in the town. Even though he didn't hold a high position, he had the authority to oversee all administrative matters in town, so people often came to him with gifts.
Just like how Uncle Green sold his milk, Morssen only hoped that Claude's father would put in a few good words for him in case something happened. That was enough for him to give out so much milk.
Claude stood up and put on his black school uniform. It was a short coat similar to those worn on Earth, but it didn't have a suit collar. Instead, it had a square collar that resembled the collar of a Chinese tunic jacket.
The hem of the uniform was knee-length and the sleeves were closed like a leather jacket.
The uniform was made of linen, so it didn't look all that smooth and was slightly wrinkled.
He took a blue towel from the hanging rope in the corner of the room and went downstairs to the bathroom.
Sometimes, Claude was glad that the new world he transmigrated to had a decent standard of living and hygiene.
For example, the toothbrush was made of wood and horse hair. It was a little big, but it could still fit in one's mouth.
While there wasn't any toothpaste, there was some toothpowder that seemed to be made of refined salt and herbs.
Water was provided by a copper pipe from a water tower, but only the wealthiest people in town could enjoy it.
There was also toilet paper, soap and scented soap, glass in the windows, and even a toilet bowl in the bathroom.
When he thought of the people who transmigrated to the past and used wooden tiles to shave their buttocks, Claude couldn't help but chuckle to himself. As expected, happiness came from comparison.
Claude's house was a four-storey red brick building. The highest floor was a row of four buildings with pointed roofs.
Claude had once heard his father mention to others that their house was built in the Hogo style of architecture that was popular a hundred years ago. It was built by the famous master of architecture, Bieridh Hogo.
The seventh king of Aueras, Stellin VII, loved and admired that style of architecture. He once ordered the construction of three main streets with Hogo style buildings in the royal capital.
Sixty years ago, a baron named Blond Ke Rodman built the Hogo style building in Whitestag as his residence and it became one of the most luxurious and famous buildings in the town.
Fifty years ago, Prince Kargart Dom Stellin, later known as Stellin IX, fired the first shot to revive the kingdom in Whitestag. Rodman Manor, as it was now known, became the base camp of the opposing faction. The fiercest resistance took place there.
It was said that the situation at the time was extremely tense. If they couldn't take down Rodman Mansion within half an hour, the flintlock garrison at Stone Outpost 15 kilometers away might come to the enemy's aid. After all, the enemy was nominally part of the ruling class of Whitestag. As subordinates, the garrison at Stone Outpost had to obey their orders. Even if many of the soldiers were Prince Kargart's sympathizers and supporters, they couldn't do anything about it.
In order to resist the king's arrest and house arrest order, Prince Calgat, who had launched the war in a hurry, had no choice but to beg for bravery under the generous reward. He swore that no matter who it was, as long as they could break into the mansion, after the victory, no matter what request they made, whether it was title, property, beauty, or official position, as long as the prince could do it, he would fulfill this promise.
The prince's promise of a great reward made the eyes of many of his subordinates turn red with greed. After a volley of gunfire, the motivated soldiers braved the barrage of gunfire from the windows of the mansion and charged forward with their lives on the line.
Thirty to forty of them fell on the ground along the way. The remaining ten or so warriors successfully broke into the mansion and engaged the defenders in melee combat.
Using that opportunity, the prince launched a second charge. With the defenders' firepower greatly reduced, he managed to take down the first floor of the mansion with only a few casualties.
The situation was hopeless. Soon, the remaining guards were either killed or surrendered.
The prince successfully took over Whitestag. Due to the late arrival of the flintlock garrison, they chose the second option without hesitation and became the first official battalion under the prince's command. They were charged with the crime of delaying the battle and had to choose between the prince's recruitment.
That was the beginning of the civil war in Aueras known as the War of the Tricolor Scepter. After Stellin VII's death, the sickly Stellin VIII reigned for eleven years. He didn't accomplish much and the kingdom's financial situation gradually deteriorated.
The conflict between the nobles, freemen, and merchants grew more and more intense. Many nobles disregarded the kingdom's laws and set up tax cards and private armies in their fiefs to plunder the wealth of the people for their own use.
Bandits rose up all over the kingdom and the people had no way of making a living.
Nasri and Berkley at the borders of the kingdom took advantage of the situation and constantly stirred up conflict at the border, eventually occupying two prefectures in the northeast of the kingdom.
Stellin VIII's solution to the problems both internally and externally was simple. He died with a glare, leaving a mess for his successor to clean up.
Stellin VIII's death didn't matter. His existence had always been weak. In the eyes of the people, it didn't matter whether he had a king or not. The situation wasn't that bad and everyone was struggling to survive.
The problem was that Stellin VIII's death didn't matter, but he didn't leave behind a will to announce who the next king would be. That made the elder princess Ilynia and the second prince Ernest very excited. They both believed that they had a chance of ascending to the throne.
Elder Princess Ilynia had a bad reputation among the people and was known for her licentious ways among the nobles. Her supporters were the military nobles of the royal guards, as well as the Kingdom of Nasri and the Duchy of Berkeley.
It was said that the two enemy countries supported the eldest princess to become the queen. At that time, there were rumors in the capital that the eldest princess promised to cede the four counties in the northeast to the two neighboring countries after she ascended the throne in exchange for a peace agreement between them and her support.
Prince Ernest's supporters were the fief nobles, the small group of people with vested interests in the kingdom. With the prince's uncle, Duke Brown at the head, they stubbornly opposed any changes to the status quo.
Relying on the 12 city defense barracks under their control, they confronted the royal guard in the capital. From time to time, there would be incidents of gunfire.
While Ilynia and Prince Ernest were at odds, she didn't forget to take care of their youngest brother, the third prince, Kargart Don Stellin.
It was common knowledge that the third prince was the result of Stellin VIII's relationship with his maid before he ascended to the throne. He wasn't the queen's biological son and was technically an illegitimate child.
However, the maid died of a plague not long after Kargart was born. Stellin VIII remembered old times and had the queen adopt the baby, making him the third prince in name.
In reality, Kargart was raised by an elderly gardener couple. The queen was too busy taking care of her two biological children to care for this illegitimate child.
Princess Ilynia and Prince Ernest had always believed that Kargart wasn't a threat to the throne. After all, he wasn't the queen's biological son.
However, they also felt that Kargart was an eyesore in the capital. They wanted to give him a fief but couldn't bear to part with it, so they found an excuse to send him to the three southwestern prefectures and sent him out of the capital.
What they didn't expect was that Kargart used the Stellin royal family's banner as a tiger's skin to punish the lawless nobles and local tyrants along the way. He comforted the poor and wiped out bandits along the way, winning over the hearts of the people. Many heroes and elites who were worried about the kingdom's affairs flocked to him and soon, he had a powerful army.
Princess Ilynia and Prince Ernest could no longer sit still in the capital. They were prepared to deal with this new threat to the throne.
On the second day after Prince Calgat arrived in Whitefood, he was captured and brought back to the capital to be placed under house arrest. His entourage was also ordered to be disbanded. There was also a sentence at the bottom of the order: If there was any resistance, he could be killed on the spot.