Turns out I really did have to sit around and look pretty, on the throne of course. Why, you ask? Because while the Kingdom Laws allowed a noble to make their own Laws, the Law had to be enforced by the noble. In short, I was the Executioner, Aswelth was the Judge and I suppose Kerrin could be the Jury.

What it also did was create a lot of paperwork. But that was on me, woe be me noting down every criminal and a list of their crimes. Lots of things to sign and categorize. Put into nice little legal brackets that were hopefully fair. It had taken me a good long while to get there, but I had made the brackets now.

Thankfully the Kingdom did have laws, as a righteous force, it had to conform to expectations. The Laws were just not very enforced. Sadly for the Clans I decided to enforce them. And they didn't even have the excuse that it wasn't a crime when they did it. Sorry, you murders, rapes and extortion were still crimes, go to jail, bye bye.

Petty theft was going to be fined, Abuse and the rest would get a labor sentence depending on the seriousness of the crime and things like massacres would get the death penalty. This was a Xianxia world, death penalty was sadly needed and as much as I would love to give everyone second chances, it would need to be implemented.

When the Labor had come up, I had been very against it, it sounded far too much like slavery and wanted to have nothing to do with that. But apparently, the labor did not mean they were sold off and put to work in deplorable conditions, the Kingdom apparently had a special area where there was next to no ambient Qi, there were no beasts to kill or anything that would increase the criminals' cultivation.

It functioned like one massive Xianxia Jail where the criminals were sent, they were apparently even paid, though I doubted said pay was a livable wage. But it was better than the nothing I expected and had me thinking as to the real nature of the problem that was the Kingdom.

On one hand it had things like its Nobility and its heavily birth status focused social system, and on the other hand you had the massive Jail and a King that did not seam evil. It really made one wonder, didn’t it? But that was all besides the point. I had paperwork to do.

Artin Conserus

Artin was not pleased. Yet another one of his loyal servants was dead and this time it hadn’t even yielded any fruit. In fact, it had led to the wastage of a Ducal Pardon, not that the brat could do anything about it.

If there was one thing he absolutely hated, it was being denied what was rightfully his, and that brat had done exactly that. At least she had the good sense to refuse the energy seed. Taking whatever weak seed she had been offered otherwise.

But that would not do, the brat was still a threat, she could grow into a genius and steal his throne from him. That was why he had to make sure she died, and soon. Before she had a chance to get some lucky encounters and grow.

And before that he must grow, that was why he was here in the forest after all, it was time to get some Qi. Artin summoned his Qi, letting it swirl around his hand in the form of gray wispy threads. Then he let out the threads in a single shot, coalescing them into a spear-like weapon midair.

The spear impacted on the ground, causing that area of the forest to burn to dust. Oh, how he loved his element, nothing could survive the attack of the weapon that was the Ghastly Fire. A smile spread across his lips as he could just see his coronation as King. It would be soon, he would ensure that.

(Altura-MC)

“I am sorry I do not understand what you mean.” I said as I stared as the man in front of me fidgeted uncomfortably.

“It was a mistake, your grace, I am sorry, it will not happen again! Please grant me asylum!.” the man said, seeming to be overcome by fear.

“I see, but I fear I do not understand. Why exactly did you melt all your gold and make it into a large…bird? Is that what it is? The taxes are one thing, but I am, simply unable to understand why you are doing this. Is it an extravagant wedding gift? A birthday present? A lifelong dream? I am truly curious,” I replied.

It had been two weeks since Viona had been taken by her Elder and if there was one thing I had found out it was that if you gave humans the freedom to do anything they wanted they would do things you could never imagine doing.

For example, this man before me. One of Clan Qunaris’ premiere shopkeepers, on gaining ownership of the shop had not only sold it immediately but also taken all his savings and melted all the money into a strange bird-like figurine. And now had not only defaulted on his weekly tax but also had no money to feed his family.

Now all of that was still ok, people made bad decisions and a single defaulted tax was no big deal, but he refused to melt the figurine and had come to the Roalt Mansion begging for asylum from his wife who was, understandably, furious at him.

To make things worse, the woman had joined the guard in the last week to feed her kids after her husband had failed to do so and would soon have a cultivation. And that wasn’t even the biggest problem. The issue was that the asylum was not for the man, it was for the figurine.

Actually, that wasn't the biggest concern. The Biggest difficulty was that the man was requesting asylum. As far as I knew, at least political asylum was granted against persecution in other nations, not because your wife was angry at you for starving your family.

“Shopkeeper Tharius, I am sorry, truly I am, but unless you can give a satisfactory reason for me to grant this…figurine, asylum, I shall have to reject your request. I shall however make sure that you shall face no threat from your wife, sparing any emotional hurt that may occur if she chooses to divorce you for your choices. Thank you for bringing your case before this court. Dismissed” I said.

And as the shopkeeper moved out I added, “Another thing, asylum is granted in cases of persecution in other nations, your case is completely different. Please keep that in mind for next time.”

The shopkeeper nodded and went out of the treehouse muttering under his breath.

“And that was all for this morning, your grace, you can now go have lunch.” Kerrin said from beside me. The old joke again, was it?

“Really Kerrin? The same joke again? I do catch on, you know.” I said, giving Kerrin my best judging face.

“I wouldn’t be sure, your grace, you did fall for it twice, a third time isn’t exactly out of the realm of possibility.” Kerrin replied, smirking. I swear, the guy seemed to have grown years in a week. Though Aswelth told me that was completely normal.

‘Seed germination changes a person, your grace, the more anomalous the seed, the more the person changes. Didn’t your own seed change you?’

And well I suppose he had a point, Kerrin had an old man’s memories merge with him. It made sense that he would act older than he was.

“And what is really on the plan today?” I asked.

“There were several things scheduled, your grace, but the head of one of the farming villages has arrived and has asked for a meeting. With your permission, your grace, I and Aswelth shall deal with the prior appointments. As this is your first meeting with an envoy from the farming villages I feel that it is best that we value them more than the Clans.” Kerrin said.

I wonder exactly what was there in those memories. The author had never really expounded on it, but Kerrin certainly seemed to know a bit too much about Xianxia politics. But I had a village head to deal with.

“Very well Kerrin, the hall is yours. I shall see what the villages want.” I replied as I walked out of the Treehouse.

Thankfully in the past two weeks I had crossed into the Sapling realm. It hadn’t even been hard, the Qi from helping Kerrin and making an entire judicial system to deal with the Qunaris Clan had tided me over.

The gains were unexpectedly large, if I was being honest. I had gained access to my stats, nine in each stat for now, but I was told that it increased greatly over time and other avenues for stat gain would be open to me now. I could now also cast snowflakes that lasted for over a minute and best of all, could now control my aura to some extent.

Not anything close to what Aswelth or that Elder could do, but I could retract and release it and that was enough for me. Anything more would come in time I was sure. I stepped through the snowflake train, my now increased stats allowing me to speed through the snowflakes with far more grace than I had before. Getting powerful was fun, wasn’t it?

Name

Altura Selrin

Title

Archduchess (In name) (landed)

Element

Dragon Fire, Snowflake ice

Age

10 years

Seeds

Military (ungerminated), Royalty (Seedling-Late(270.95/300)), Energy (ungerminated)

Stats

Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]

9

Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]

13

Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]

11

Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]

13

Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]

9

Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]

12

Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]

13

Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]

14

Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]

13

Retainers

Kerrin

Mid-Seedling (260/300). Element of Blood, anomalous Seedling.