Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

The Town Lord’s Manor in Redwood Town was quite an expansive compound, comprised of over 10 buildings on nearly 40,000 square metres of land, but the City Lord’s Manor of Herald City was over 10 times larger.

Multiple courtyards, halls, stables, warehouses, training grounds, and other facilities were all arranged inside a sturdy, stone walled complex. This place served as both Count Baker’s residence, and the centre of government for the entire Baker County.

It was the most central and secure location in Herald City and was protected by no less than 100 private guards at all times.

Tonight, however, a single intruder was intent on forcing her way inside.

”Halt! This is the City Lord’s Man-gah!”

Swatting aside the guards who attempted to obstruct her path, Celestina burst straight through the main gate of the Baker Family’s compound, not even slowing down as she smashed the thick wooden doors clean off their hinges.

With her titles of General and Marquess, if she had simply announced herself, these guards wouldn’t have dared to obstruct her path, but with every second of time being precious right now, Celestina didn’t even consider following proper procedure.

The destruction of the main gate naturally drew the attention of more guards, many of whom rushed out to try to determine what was happening, but all any of them saw was a silver and crimson streak flash past them, heading towards the direction of the main residence.

Even the strongest of these guards was only in the Sea Establishment Realm, so expecting them to actually impede a High-Rank Adept’s path was lunacy. The only reason Celestina had bothered knocking aside the guards at the gate was simply because they were directly in her way.

The other guards inside the compound should have counted their blessings that Celestina was in such a rush, or she wouldn’t have minded beating a few of them up to relieve her anger.

On her way over from the garrison, Celestina had gotten a chance to see first-hand what kind of condition Herald City was in, and saying she was less than impressed would be a gross understatement.

In the outer parts of the city, not only was the most basic infrastructure in extremely poor condition, most of the residents were also in terrible shape. Many people were living in squalor, in homes and neighbourhoods that were best described as slums.

The only thing that wasn’t an issue was food, as the vast fertile fields extending out from Herald City towards the west seemed to provide an abundance of grain and vegetables, while fish was readily available from the wide Belton River to the east.

Some of these issues were no doubt compounded by the recent crisis, but as a Marquess who ruled over multiple prosperous cities, each several times larger than this one, Celestina knew that most of the problems here were systemic, rather than acute.

Roads didn’t develop potholes and houses didn’t start rotting overnight, after all.

What made Celestina even angrier though was that in the core of the city, everything was different, with ornate mansions and residences situated on vast plots of land, clearly belonging to the wealthy class.

As a wealthy and powerful Marquess herself, Celestina had no issue with people getting rich, but when they did so by so blatantly exploiting the ordinary citizenry, it made her want to wring necks.

Unlike ordinary mortals, who often lived less than 80 years, Celestina was a Complete High-Rank Adept who had witnessed the passage of nearly three centuries. Over her comparatively long life, she had become well aware that while you could gain some immediate benefits by heavily exploiting your subjects, workers, or customers, all that was left after a few decades would be ruination.

This wasn’t just short-sighted, it was self-destructive.

Celestina also understood that if one part of the nation rotted, the rest of the kingdom would also suffer; perhaps it wouldn’t happen right away, but in time, rot and decay always spread.

There was nothing Celestina hated more than traitors, but fools who caused trouble for everyone around them ranked highly on the list of those who angered her.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done about this mess in the short term as she had other priorities at the moment, so Celestina forced herself to turn a blind eye to all of this for now.

Again smashing through the gaudy, golden doors of the main residence, Celestina swept the building with her Soul Sense and quickly found her target’s location.

According to her granddaughter Sasha, there were only 3 Spirit Initiates in Herald City, Commander Leonard Manning, Count Richard Baker, and Arnold Baker, the family’s Great Elder.

Leonard Manning had fled at some point, while the Baker Family’s Great Elder had a separate, slightly less opulent residence which Celestina had spotted on her way through the Manor, so by process of elimination, the faint Spirit Initiate aura she sensed in this building had to be Richard Baker.

With a flicker, Celestina raced through several halls of the residence and climbed two sets of stairs before arriving in front of a certain set of double-doors; but when she got there, she froze in place.

Outside what she assumed was the Count’s bedroom were 4 women with thick blankets wrapped around their bodies. The hallway was warm enough to feel comfortable even for Body Tempering Mortals thanks to numerous fireplaces and some cheap heating Spirit Tools, but these women in the Vein Opening Realm were all shivering despite being tightly wrapped up.

On top of that, these women were so distraught and distracted that even with a fully armed and armoured figure appearing right in front of them in a gust of wind, they failed to react.

Noticing their prettier than normal faces, which were marred with a type of tragic resolve Celestina was more accustomed to seeing on soldiers who knew they were about to die in battle, and taking into account just where she was standing, the rage Celestina had been forcing down all this time exploded out.

.....

Since the day he was born, Richard Baker had never wanted for anything.

As the one and only child Count Gerald Baker had with his wife after decades of trying, Richard was the jewel of his parent’s eyes. Anything he wanted, they gave him; anything he wanted to do, they permitted him; and when his mother passed away when he was just a boy of 13, his father began spoiling him even more as he was now the one and only heir he had.

Gerald Baker was an honest and earnest man who deeply loved his wife, never taking a second despite receiving many offers, making him a rarity among the upper nobility.

In fact, Gerald had been so smitten that after he married, he never even engaged in a casual fling with another woman or employed the use of the readily available brothels in his city.

Even after his wife died, Gerald swore he would never have another woman in his life and instead channeled all of his affection into his only son.

All this would have made for a wonderfully romantic story, if not for Gerald Baker failing to impose any kind of discipline on his errant heir. It was such wanton indulgence that shaped Richard Baker into an arrogant, petty, and cowardly man.

Of course, the future Count was given the education and training required of him to one day assume his position as head of the Baker Family, but how much of that knowledge Richard actually retained by the time he came of age was questionable.

Now, Gerald Baker might have been a doting father, but he wasn’t a complete fool. He could see his son becoming more and more of a wastrel as the years went on, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to come down hard on the last remaining gift his precious wife had left him.

It was this very set of circumstances that led Gerald Baker to remain as Count for almost 30 years longer than he originally planned.

Gerald knew that his son wasn’t cut out for leadership, or for handling the heavy responsibility of governing their territory, so he instead continued managing the affairs of the County together with his younger brother while piling resources onto Richard in order to help him to reach the Spirit Initiate Realm.

In Gerald’s mind, even if his son was lacking as an administrator, as long as he became a Spirit Initiate, he would at least have sufficient strength to legitimize his position.

This wasn’t easy to achieve, however, as Richard only engaged in the absolute minimum amount of cultivation required of him, delaying his progress by many years.

As a result of his laxity, Richard Baker only broke through to the Grand Spirit Realm at the age of 73, an abysmal record given his relatively good Innate Talent and the resources he had at his disposal.

To put it into perspective, Farah Wilder, the butcher from Redwood Town, who had a similar level of talent but far fewer resources, managed to break through to the Spirit Initiate Realm at the age of 49. This was considered fairly normal for a commoner who joined the kingdom’s military, but it was terrible compared to the talented sons and daughters of high nobility in the Rockwell Kingdom.

When Gerald Baker handed over his title and left to pursue his own cultivation, as most Spirit Initiate nobles in the Redwood Kingdom tended to do once they were able, Richard Baker was ecstatic and celebrated for half-a-month straight, hosting banquets every day and sleeping with a different woman every night, sometimes even taking several of them to his bedchambers at once.

He rejoiced as his ’nuisance’ of a father was finally out of the picture, and all the power of the Baker Family was finally in his grasp, giving him the freedom to do as he pleased without ever having to worry about someone nagging him again.