Boundless Family Upgrades For The Deadbeat Lord

Raymond woke before sunrise to a silence that felt strangely unfamiliar.

For several moments, he remained lying beneath the thick blankets of his bed, staring at the dark wooden ceiling while his half-awake mind tried to understand what exactly had changed.

The castle was usually noisy in the mornings. Servants moved through the corridors, guards changed shifts in the courtyard, horses stamped inside the stables, and the cold northern wind constantly scraped against the shutters with an irritating whistle.

This morning, however, everything seemed muted.

Even the wind sounded distant.

Raymond frowned slightly and pushed himself upright, the heavy blankets sliding down around his waist. The room was cold despite the dying embers inside the fireplace, and when his bare feet touched the stone floor, a sharp chill immediately climbed through his legs.

”Wonderful,” he muttered groggily. ”My feet are already freezing. This better not be what I think it is.”

He threw a thick robe over his shoulders and walked toward the large window beside the bed. The glass had fogged lightly from the difference between the warmth inside and the cold outside, so Raymond wiped his palm across it before looking down toward the town.

Then he stopped.

The Althoff Barony had turned white.

Snow covered the rooftops below in a thick, soft layer, filling the narrow spaces between broken tiles and settling along the repaired timber beams of the communal longhouses.

The main road that normally looked like a long stretch of dusty brown earth had disappeared beneath an uninterrupted blanket of pale white. Even the old stone walls surrounding the settlement had been transformed, their cracked surfaces hidden beneath frost.

Beyond the town, the change was even greater.

The endless reddish wasteland that had defined Althoff since Raymond first opened his eyes in this world had vanished completely beneath the snow.

The dry hills, broken rocks, and fractured earth had all been swallowed by the same white landscape, stretching toward the northern horizon until the pale ground seemed to merge with the grey morning sky.

Raymond rested one hand against the cold window.

”So it finally started.”

The first real snow of winter had arrived. A month ago, that sight would probably have terrified him.

Snow meant frozen roads, no merchant caravans, no agriculture, no outside supplies and no easy escape.

It meant months of isolation while more than a thousand starving people depended entirely on whatever House Althoff had managed to store before the roads became impassable.

But Raymond didn’t feel panic. Not this time.

His eyes slowly moved across the settlement.

The reinforced communal longhouses were finished.

Thick winter clothing had already been distributed throughout the population. The granaries and storage rooms were packed with food.

The newly acquired livestock had been moved into repaired shelters and supplied with prepared feed.The deep-well irrigation artifact had secured their clean water supply.

The preservation artifacts were functioning inside the most vulnerable storage cellars.

The people weren’t starving anymore.

For once since transmigrating, Raymond looked at a new crisis approaching his territory and realized he had actually prepared for it before it arrived.

A slow smile appeared on his face.

”Not bad.” He folded his arms. ”Not bad at all.”

•••••

Less than an hour later, Raymond sat inside the castle’s main hall with one leg casually crossed over the other, warming himself beside the large stone fireplace.

A heavy fire burned brightly in the hearth, filling the room with a steady orange glow and pushing back the biting cold pressing against the thick castle walls.

The main hall had once been nearly empty after the original Raymond sold most of the valuable furniture for alcohol, but the servants had gradually made the room usable again.

Several wooden chairs had been repaired, a few rugs had been cleaned and laid over the cold stone floor, and a long table now occupied the center of the room.

Lily sat in the chair opposite Raymond with both hands wrapped around a steaming ceramic cup.

Raymond lifted his own cup and took another cautious sip. The dark liquid was bitter, warm, and strangely familiar.

Coffee.

Actual coffee or at least something close enough that Raymond wasn’t going to complain.

He leaned back and stared into the cup with an expression of genuine appreciation.

”I still cannot believe you found this in Valmere.”

Lily blew gently across the surface of her drink before taking a tiny sip.

”The merchant called it blackbean brew. Marianne said nobles in the southern regions drink it when they have to stay awake for long meetings.”

Raymond’s eyebrows rose. ”Blackbean brew?”

Lily nodded seriously. ”That is what the merchant called it.”

Raymond stared at her. ”That’s a terrible name.”

Lily shrugged. ”It still tastes like burned dirt.”

Raymond nearly choked. He lowered the cup slowly and looked at her. ”You spent my money buying this, and now you’re insulting it?”

”I didn’t know it would taste like this when I bought it,” Lily replied defensively. ”It smelled much better inside the merchant’s shop.”

Raymond took another sip. ”You simply lack refinement.”

Lily narrowed her eyes. ”You added three spoons of honey.”

Raymond froze.

Lily immediately pointed at his cup with an accusing little finger. ”I saw you.”

Raymond cleared his throat and looked toward the fireplace. ”The sweetness enhances the natural complexity of the beverage.”

”You said it was too bitter.”

”I was analyzing it.”

”You made a horrible face.”

”That was concentration.”

Lily stared at him for several seconds.

Raymond maintained a completely serious expression.

Finally, Lily rolled her eyes and took another sip of her own drink.

Raymond smiled faintly.

For several minutes, neither of them said much. The quiet crackle of burning wood filled the hall while pale morning light gradually entered through the tall windows.

Outside, servants were beginning to clear snow from the main courtyard, and somewhere farther down the corridor Raymond could hear the muffled voices of guards changing shifts.

It was strangely peaceful. His heart felt calm, all the anxiety he has been feeling all these months seems to have vanished.