Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence

The city of Maleburg was incredibly luxurious, with every building showcasing its prosperity and wealth.

It was very different from the Imperial style. In the ornately decorated central square, instead of a massive knight statue, stood a magnificent fountain. As the water gushed out, a huge rainbow coalesced and lingered in the city's sky, reflecting the city's decadent nightlife.

Here, there was none of the solemn, rigid authority of knights ruling their territories. Instead, the square was surrounded by buildings in various colorful styles: towering spires, domed temples, and, most commonly, merchant guilds adorned with exquisite reliefs.

This was a merchant's paradise, possessing immense wealth, with merchant guilds from all over the world bringing all sorts of exotic treasures and luxuries. The citizens here were extremely arrogant, believing their city surpassed the Empire in every aspect of culture and art.

And the clerk in the city hall amplified this mentality to the extreme. Shablin was here on behalf of the Electoral Council of the Empire to register information for the pioneering lords from various places.

He was accustomed to the extravagance of this city, and in his eyes, all pioneering knights were nothing more than a group of beggars.

So even though Souli had a griffin perched on his shoulder and two knights in orichalcum rune armor behind him, he merely sneered contemptuously, perfunctorily opened the map, and said, "The areas marked with green flags above can be registered as your pioneering territory. Choose quickly, and don't waste my time."

Souli was in a good mood and didn't bother with his attitude. He glanced at the overview of the map. Although the map didn't have very detailed information, it was still very valuable in this place with limited information exchange. Through the map, Souli roughly understood the territory of the Border Prince. To the north and east were continuous and majestic Black Mountains, to the south was a vast ocean, to the east was an endless forest, and to the west was a desert and plateau.

The forests of this world were different from those on Earth. Whether cursed by demons or blessed by the elven gods, the trees inside grew wildly. If they weren't continuously cut down, they would quickly grow back, and in many cases, the speed of their growth outpaced the speed of logging.

So it was unwise to enter the forest far from rivers and roads. Groups of bandits and wild animals made their homes under the branches of the great forest, but more frightening was that the deeper you went into the forest, the harder it was to find these creatures. Humans knew very little about the conditions inside.

This meant it was difficult to communicate with other human forces on all sides. The Border Prince's territory was somewhat like a large basin plain.

But before Souli could continue studying, Shablin directly put away the map and said impatiently, "Alright, you've already looked at the map. Choose quickly."

Souli frowned and asked, "I haven't been able to see the terrain clearly. How can I choose?"

Shablin smiled contemptuously, "It's all the same. Anyway, you pioneering lords won't survive more than a few months after you go in. There were numbers on the map just now. Just pick one at random."

Hilde looked at him angrily, "You should at least open the map again and let us choose according to your numbers. What kind of service attitude is this? I'm going to complain to your superiors!"

"Yo! Yo! Yo!" Shablin mocked with a strange laugh, "Then go ahead! I'm a civil servant sent by the Electoral Council. Go complain to the Imperial capital. Little girl, let me tell you, you won't get any good results from offending me!"

"Want to see the map again? Take out twenty gold coins, or you can spend a night with me. Otherwise, you can only choose one at random! You bunch of stinking beggars, you still want to show off when you get to Maleburg? Yo, you're glaring so hard, do you want to hit me? Guards!"

Two elite knights immediately entered the room with a team of well-equipped chainmail-clad soldiers. They were used to this sort of thing. Every year, a batch of hot-blooded pioneering lords offended this clerk.

At first, they might not be convinced, but in the end, they all had to lower their heads, hand over a large sum of gold coins, and reconcile with Shablin.

Knight Orstein instantly flew into a rage, and with his bare hands, he knocked down all of the soldiers, then grabbed Shablin by the collar and dragged him out from behind the counter like he was a chick.

Shablin was still being stubborn, saying, "I've seen people who can fight better than you! I just won't register for you. Do you dare to turn Maleburg upside down? Let me tell you, if you know what's good for you, take out 500 gold coins as compensation, or the city guards will come and you'll all be thrown into prison."

Souli didn't care at all. He calmly sat down on the chair Hilde had moved over, crossed his legs, leaned back, and leisurely watched Knight Orstein beat him up, giving him bruises around both eyes.

Pioneering knights had immunity, so they couldn't really be thrown into prison for fighting. Shablin was deliberately intimidating them. Even if they couldn't reconcile, Souli would at most pay a fine, and Souli really had a lot of gold coins.

After Knight Orstein taught him a lesson, Souli calmly smiled and said, "I probably don't have time to complain about you to the Imperial capital. But making you suffer isn't difficult. If your superiors knew about your embezzlement and corruption, knew that you were framing pioneering knights, I wonder if they would continue to let you be this political officer?"

"You're threatening me?" Shablin's eyes were full of anger, and he stared fiercely at Souli.

"If your wife knew you were having an affair outside..."

Shablin's eyes instantly cleared. His wife was the daughter of a Maleburg senator, and she was the biggest reason he could sit in this position. If his wife knew he was having an affair outside, she would definitely tear him apart!

"Respected pioneering lord, I think there must be some misunderstanding between us." He quickly ran behind the table, picked up the map again, knelt on one knee in front of Souli's chair, and opened the map to Souli, "You can study it carefully before making a decision. According to the Imperial laws, you have a total of three opportunities to choose. After you choose the address of the pioneering territory, there is a one-month inspection period. Within this month, you can go to the destination for a field inspection. You can re-choose within one month, but if you don't come back to re-register after more than one month, Maleburg will mail the updated map information back to the Empire, and you will no longer be able to re-choose."

Souli smiled contentedly. This was the attitude the Empire should have. The Empire valued pioneering lords so much, how could it let them die so easily? If he hadn't gotten a hold of this clerk, I'm afraid most pioneering knights would never have heard of this rule.

Souli looked at Shablin kneeling at his feet and sighed, "I still prefer your arrogant and unruly look. Please restore it."

He reached out and took the map from Shablin's hand and threw it behind him, saying, "This is all to fool ordinary pioneering lords. I need more core, more confidential information."

Souli didn't believe that such a corrupt empire could put everything out in the open.

Just look at this little clerk. He had corruption engraved in his bones! If you didn't bribe him, he wouldn't even show you the map, let alone tell you the specific rules.

How could he fairly and transparently put all the truly valuable information about the Border Prince's territory out in the open?

Thinking about it, you could also know that the son of an elector and the son of a kingdom knight couldn't make fair choices. These people, in order to please the electors, must have hidden information.

Shablin immediately shook his head heavily and said decisively, "Respected pioneering lord, I really don't have any hidden information here. Besides, I'm just a small clerk, I wouldn't be able to access more important information."

Souli smiled and leaned back in his chair indifferently, "I heard that you even with the political officer's wife..."

Shablin was so shocked that he knelt on both knees, quickly grabbed Souli's right arm, and said, "I suddenly remembered a piece of news that hasn't been passed on to the political officer yet. The pioneering lord of the Hessen Mountains, a young master from an elector's family, died this month due to a monster invasion. The news hasn't been passed on to the political officer, and I think there's no need for him to know some news."

When he said the word 'some', he deliberately emphasized it, looking at Souli earnestly.

Souli raised an eyebrow and said, "Bring the map over here and let me see it. If the news is true, this information will disappear. But if you lied to me, I can't guarantee what rumors will spread in Maleburg."