Andrew's father, Baron Kyle, is so arrogant and ruthless, yet still lives so well, largely because he himself possesses formidable combat strength. Baron Kyle once fought in the Rudin Kingdom’s foreign campaign known as the Golden Camellia War—a brutal and famous conflict that left the Rudin Kingdom gravely weakened. Any warrior who managed to survive that war was by no means an ordinary person.

Skilled combat techniques, a strong physique, and smooth, powerful longsword skills—these enabled Baron Kyle to achieve the feat of single-handedly slaying fifteen heavily armored cavalrymen in a row.

Together with the infamous Sir Otis, the two of them combined were enough to make even the Viscount of Candia’s domain wary of them.

In the current Rudin Kingdom, noble titles are not the measure of strength—only power!

The power of armies! The power of the strong!

That is the true foundation.

This is an era of pure violence and bloodshed. Just like the entire domain of Baron Kyle. Even though Baron Kyle is notoriously cruel and infamous, not many of his subjects have actually moved away. This is the fundamental reason.

Without the protection of a lord, surrounded by numerous bandits, thieves, and exiles, there is only one path—death. Right now, during a severe drought, some starving bandits have even resorted to cannibalism. In such times, trying to travel from one territory to another without martial protection requires not only courage, but also facing a nearly fifty percent mortality rate.

But this is completely different within Baron Kyle’s domain.

All the bandits around the territory have already been wiped out one by one by Baron Kyle and his guards. Not only the subjects, but even the bandits themselves flee at the mere mention of the baron’s fearsome reputation. So the baron’s domain, including the large area of Candia City, is considered a safe zone. At least half of Candia City now relies on Baron Kyle’s formidable reputation for its security. This is also why Butler Howard is so unreserved even toward the Viscount of Candia.

Living under such a powerful lord, although people may occasionally fear his cruelty, it’s still better than living in constant danger of losing one’s life. After all, no matter how cruel the lord is, only a handful of people actually suffer; with so many people in the whole territory, it’s unlikely to be oneself. Edward Scott figured this was what most of the subjects thought.

He picked up the parchment on the table.

The letters on it were in a script Edward Scott had never seen before. It looked a bit like English, but also somewhat like the Tibetan script from old China.

“If I hadn’t merged with Andrew’s memories, learning the language of this world from scratch would have been extremely difficult.” Although Edward Scott spoke fluently with others, it was due to the body’s instinctive imprint.

The contents of the language memory area still lingered. Whenever he instinctively wanted to express himself, he would directly draw on the language symbols stored in his brain’s memory, so he didn’t need to relearn spoken language.

“But this script looks very well-developed…” Edward Scott frowned slightly as he looked at the parchment in his hand. The content was a family history note he had copied when he first returned.

“If only I still had my old chip. Since the writing system is so complete, it would be very convenient to acquire knowledge from books.”

Edward Scott habitually rubbed his left temple. This was the activation gesture for the bio-assist chip implanted in his previous life on Earth. He did it purely out of habit.

“Beep!!”

Suddenly, a long beep sounded in his ear.

Edward Scott was stunned. He had heard this sound countless times—so familiar. It was the sound of the bio-assist chip being activated back on Earth.

“Biochip N18907 at your service. Manufactured by China Feiteng Corporation, supervised by the Artificial Intelligence Supervision Department.” A sweet female voice in Chinese sounded in his mind.

Edward Scott was not flustered; he knew this was the promotional message that played only the first time the chip was activated. Just like the brand logo that appears when you turn on a TV. It didn’t mean the chip was intelligent.

As an auxiliary chip that everyone in the 23rd century possessed, the biochip had only two functions.

Analysis and storage.

Analysis was just basic logical modeling, using data from mathematics, physics, and other disciplines for comprehensive analysis, with the results automatically entered into the storage area.

Because of concerns about artificial intelligence affecting the human brain, the chip was not intelligent, and it existed in a perfected symbiotic state with the human brain—or rather, it was simply a part of the human brain.

As for storage, it was a biological memory module independent of the brain, with a capacity far exceeding that of the human brain, able to flawlessly record all sensory information for over a thousand years. The human brain, at most, could only remember 150 years.

“The chip actually came with me?” For a moment, Edward Scott could hardly believe it. His breathing quickened, and he sat in the chair for a long time without saying a word. He needed some time to process the shock of this event.

“But it’s possible. I heard the new generation chip I used was directly engraved into the gene chain, and even if damaged, it would self-repair like the liver. So maybe my genes were brought over as well?” Edward Scott speculated.

“Please name the chip.” The sweet voice sounded in his mind again.