As he passed by Edward Scott, Edward Scott casually gave Maggie's chest a squeeze. A sensation of elasticity and fullness was transmitted from his palm to his brain.

The two girls immediately let out a startled cry. Maggie giggled and ran off, pulling Cecilia away with her.

“Although the body is still young, it’s still nice to touch.” A faint smile appeared on Edward Scott’s face. After suppressing himself for so long, he considered this a bit of interest collected. Otherwise, he doubted whether he could endure without developing some kind of problem.

After that, Edward Scott practiced the basic sword techniques on time every day, then used the chip’s correction ability to constantly perfect his movements.

The more than ten thousand repetitions of basic movements were quickly completed. Through detection, Edward Scott found that his physical strength had indeed increased by 0.1.

He also collected some physical data of his peers through the chip.

Unfortunately, among all his peers who had inherited the seed, their average physical stats were at least above 0.8, even the girls. This made his joy at increasing his strength by 0.1 quickly fade away.

The baron and Otis the knight seemed busy dealing with the roaming convicts and had no time to pay attention to Edward Scott. As for teaching, it was simply entrusted to Arnold for now. Edward Scott was happy with this arrangement; after all, he currently had no way to accept better training methods, and the basic sword techniques were enough for him to practice repeatedly.

As for Maggie, Edward Scott only touched her that first time and never bothered her again, lest his adolescent body couldn’t resist. However, he did mention her mother’s situation to Howard, changing it to a lighter matter. This made Maggie noticeably grateful.

Four days later...

Morning.

Leo Castle dining hall.

Around a rectangular wooden dining table, a circle of the Leo family’s core members sat quietly eating their food.

Andrew sat at one end in the vice host’s seat. With the baron absent, he held the highest status in the castle. On either side of him sat two middle-aged women, the baron’s third and fourth wives.

Both women were beautiful in their own ways, but even with the baron absent, their expressions remained respectful and polite.

Below them sat two rows of young men and women, all dressed in red noble attire with black trim. Cyril was among them, as well as the boy named Graham whom he had met earlier at the training ground.

There were more than a dozen of these young men and women, most of them good-looking and quietly eating their food at their seats.

Throughout the entire table, aside from the clinking of silverware and plates, there was no other sound.

Andrew precisely cut off a small piece of cooked horned beef while scanning the table with his gaze. Standing behind him was Old Howard. With the baron absent, the powerful Old Howard and the forces he commanded were the guarantee of Andrew’s status. So no one dared to defy him.

The people at this table were the only members in the entire castle with enough status to dine with the baron. As for Maggie and her parents, they naturally were not included.

Andrew speared a piece of horned beef. He took a small sip of soup first, immediately frowning: “What soup is this today? Why is it different from before?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.

Old Howard respectfully answered from behind.

“It’s wild game the master sent back the day before yesterday—some mushrooms and a few red one-eyed snakes stewed together.”

Andrew nodded.

“This soup is good. Red one-eyed snakes? Do we have them in the forests around here?”

“Yes, plenty. But these snakes are highly venomous, and it’s hard to treat a bite. They’re among the least popular prey. We only get to eat them occasionally,” Old Howard replied.

“Oh.” Andrew picked up the small bowl and took another sip. The flavor was fresh and rich. A few green scallions floated on the milky white soup, making it look like custard.

“After breakfast, I’m planning to go out for a bit,” Andrew said calmly.

Old Howard frowned slightly.

“It’s a turbulent time lately. You’d be safer staying in the castle...”

“It’s fine. I’ll just walk around nearby, around the cavalry’s morning training ground. Nothing will happen.” Andrew interrupted. “You can send two people with me.” His tone was firm and brooked no argument.

Old Howard could only nod.

“All right, but please don’t stay out too long.”

Andrew nodded to show he understood.

The dining table returned to its previous calm.

After breakfast, Andrew went straight to the main gate of the castle. Two bodyguards had joined him.

Andrew looked thoughtful. At his waist hung a cross-shaped iron sword, and on his back he carried a short bow and a quiver. The quiver was filled with fifty white-feathered arrows.

“Are you going hunting, sir?” one of the guards asked quietly.

Andrew shook his head slightly.

“Just going to the edge of the forest to practice, see if I can shoot some small game.”

But no one knew that at this moment, a row of pale blue data was displayed in his eyes.

“Special food matching physique detected. Category: meat, snake species, named red one-eyed snake. Eating the snake’s eye meat raw one hundred and nine times consecutively can increase agility by 1.”

This was the reason Andrew insisted on going out.