The witch thought I am a Demon God
Chapter 377 - 233 The Iron Crown Law of Lombardy Duchy_1

Chapter 377: Chapter 233 The Iron Crown Law of Lombardy Duchy_1

The very next day, Ivita set out with the nine professionals she had previously recruited, Tartax, Vampire Wilson, Vampire Davina, and the Hearthstone Witch, as well as a carpenter, a chef, and a doctor she had previously enlisted.

The reason for taking two vampires out was twofold. Firstly, the skill of mental coercion was indeed useful. Secondly, she didn’t feel comfortable leaving these two creatures of the night within her domain.

This group of seventeen got on the road with loaves of bread for sustenance and barrels of beer for hydration.

This was the preference of long-haul travellers: dried bread is not prone to mould, and beer could be preserved for over a month. All much better than water, which would begin to stink within days, and thus, easier to store.

That’s why many who regularly traversed the seas developed quite the taste for alcohol.

Actually, it didn’t have to be this troublesome.

As Ivita had mastered Water Magic, she could conjure water for everyone to drink.

However, by the time Ivita realized this, they had already set off.

They rented a ten-meter-long single-mast sailboat in Marlinna City, and then set off downstream along the Bohr River within the Ambros territory. After crossing several cities and over a dozen towns, they arrived at the southernmost outpost of Ambros.

After paying a tax of 12 pence per person, they left Ambros.

The farthest the boatman could take them was to the end of southern Ambros and then he could no longer take them further.

So, Ivita and her team spent two hours in a foreign territory to rent a new boat to carry them on their journey downstream the Bohr river.

South of Ambros lay the Duchy of Lombardy, situated among the mountains, a typical feudal state.

Consequently, both banks of the Bohr River were brimming with serf lands owned by several feudal lords, continuous farmland, and sporadic small manor villages.

Men and women, who came to fetch water, looked numb, barely scraping by each day. Their living conditions seemed even worse than the serfs in Ambros. They all seemed incredibly thin, with most exhibiting signs of malnutrition, the clothes they wore were worn out and patched, many of the impoverished didn’t even own clothes to wear.

On the boat, a female ranger of elf lineage sat alone at the stern. Four warriors and two apprentice hunters had become friends, joking and laughing with each other. The two knights sat in a quiet corner of the boat.

The two vampires and the Hearthstone Witch were quite familiar with Ivita, so they always sat around her.

Ivita had initially assumed that life in the Duchy of Lombardy was all like this.

The poor, rural areas, the country lanes and farms.

But two days later, as they passed by King City, the luxurious city full of wealthy ladies festooned with gold and silver, streets filled with pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, made Ivita realize the wealth disparity in this country was massive.

The Duchy was an even more feudal country than Ambros, a typical serfdom.

The composition of this country was of feudal lords and their king, a major feudal master.

But Ivita didn’t have the leisure to worry about this country’s affairs. Here, she was merely a passerby.

Besides, this was a Duchy; the power of the Duchy was many times stronger than the entire country of Ambros.

While the people of this country might be poor, that didn’t mean the country was weak.

Of course, without a doubt, the people of Ambros were wealthier than the commoners of this country.

Along the way, Ivita noticed that the Lombardy Duchy had virtually no merchant activity, instead, each territory’s lord had set up many toll gates and toll stations.

Nevertheless, due to Tartax’s utilizing of his relations within the Lombardy court, they had mysteriously been designated as a vessel delivering tribute to the king.

Therefore, Ivita and the others were exempted from the transit tax.

In addition, the regular toll soldiers, realizing the professionals on the boat were not to be trifled with, did not dare to harass Ivita and her group.

Ivita noticed that among the Duchy of Lombardy’s toll soldiers, there were actually a few lower-ranked professionals, the first and second levels.

This indicated the power of this nation.

However, as they crossed this country via water, without coming ashore, Ivita could only perceive some surface-level aspects of the country and could not delve deep into observations.

When passing the King City, Ivita saw a tremendous stone mountain towering in the center of the capital of the Duchy of Lombardy. The splendid capital had been built centered around this mountain.

Most interestingly, the stone mountain was gigantic and stood out from the surface of the earth. At the peak of the mountain was an enormous crown.

It was a massive iron crown situated atop the mountain, soaring high into the clouds, half in half out of sight.

Like a miracle.

It gave those who gazed upon it a sense of their own insignificance.

When Ivita got close to that massive Iron Crown, she began to feel a surge of magic power within her. The magic power, which had become active after separating from The Holy Mountain Desert, became even more agitated when she was near the Iron Crown.

Ivita felt uncomfortable and stole a glance at the massive Iron Crown.

The others on the ship, however, dared not look directly at the Iron Crown.

Ivita asked the Hearthstone Witch, "What’s the deal with that gigantic crown, and why is it on top of a mountain?"

The Hearthstone Witch responded, "Majesty, that is the incarnation of the Iron Crown Law of the Duchy of Lombardy."

"In the Duchy of Lombardy, whoever gains the recognition of the Iron Crown Law can become the ruler here, receiving the acknowledgment of all Alduin successor noble lords of Lombardy. Ordinary people can’t even glance directly at the Iron Crown on the mountain, as it is the crown of the king acknowledged by the Alduin successors."

"There is a legend here that once upon a mountain of Lombardy, a common slave boy tending sheep encountered an angel. The angel handed him a crown, stating, ’I bestow upon you this crown, by the will of the God of All Things. You shall form your kingdom here, and your descendants will rule here for countless generations.’"

Ivita asked curiously, "That boy must be Alduin, right?"

"So did he become a king?"

Everyone looked at the Old Witch.

The Old Witch addressed Ivita, "Majesty, you are right."

"But Alduin, who received the crown, did not become a king. He labored his whole life and became nothing more than a well-off freeman with a host of slaves tending sheep for him."

"Later in his life, Alduin held the Iron Crown, fraught with confusion, and passed away in melancholy."

"However, his son Aldor’s third son, Audirick, became the founder of the Kingdom of Lombardy."

"His descendants then became a substantial part of the feudal lords of this kingdom."

"According to Audirick, he and his descendants took the Iron Crown from their ancestor Alduin, hence they could determine everyone in this country’s birth, aging, sickness, death, and burial."

As if remembering something, the Hearthstone Witch said, "Under the Iron Crown Law, only those who pray to the Duke of Lombardy and the God of All Things can have the right to be buried in Lombardy’s soils. Otherwise, even if a body is interred within this land, the earth will reject the corpse. It won’t decay, and there’s even the risk of turning it into a zombie."

After listening, Ivita raised an eyebrow and thought, this indeed is a classic feudal serfdom society.