However, the three men each had different thoughts. Peter King glanced at Nathaniel Brooks with a faint hint of contempt in his eyes.

Peter King also had relatives in the area. Originally, he had come to greet this young lord, hoping the young lord would look after his kin.

But now, Peter King could only sneer inwardly. A rustic is just a rustic, unfit for the stage—he just got lucky, that’s all!

As for Nathaniel Brooks, his habits from his previous life remained. When dining out, he naturally chose restaurants outside.

All the cooks in his own residence were still Samuel Clark’s old staff; everything needed to be refreshed before he could consider using them.

Henry Clark, his face swollen like a pig’s head, stood at a distance, on the verge of tears.

So, it wasn’t the county magistrate, but the lord himself. With a single order, my life could be taken as easily as a game. It’s over, truly over!

His legs were shaking violently, as if he had malaria.

Almost all the county officials had been swept up in one go, and since Nathaniel Brooks had not yet appointed new officials for the residence, only five people sat at the table.

Besides Nathaniel Brooks, the imperial envoy Mr. Bennett, the state assistant David Johnson, and the state judicial officer Peter King, the only other was the county’s Confucian scholar, Matthew Parker, who alone had not been punished.

But Matthew Parker, this old pedant, was clearly frightened by the upheaval in the county. His goatee trembled, his gaze darted about like a thief, not daring to meet anyone’s eyes.

The owner of the Red Mansion was a native woman, with dark skin, thick lips, and rather attractive features. Dressed in local attire, her navel adorned with a silver bead and large silver hoops in her ears, she exuded a wild, exotic charm.

As she poured the wine, Peter King laughed and said, “In the capital, there are Hu maidens offering wine; in the East Sea, there are native women serving dishes. A small comfort, a small comfort! But the contrast between black and white, beauty and ugliness, is stark indeed. Alas, alas!”

Everyone laughed. The native woman, knowing that Officer Wang was mocking her, forced a smile and served even more carefully. In the eyes of the Tang people, natives held an especially low status—many regarded them as little better than beasts.

David Johnson, however, frowned slightly. At the table, aside from Dr. Ma, the lowest-ranking official was this Officer Wang, merely a seventh-rank official, yet he was far too arrogant. No matter how you looked at it, in front of the county lord, he shouldn’t be so presumptuous, overshadowing his host.

Not to mention the host-guest relationship—even in terms of rank, the Lord of the East Sea was upper second rank, more than twenty grades above your lower seventh rank!

Still, as fellow officials of Haizhou, David Johnson knew that Peter King had powerful backing. He was already overbearing at the state office—even the governor was somewhat wary of him.

“Your Excellency, once you’ve selected your residence officials, you can submit the list directly; it’s just a formality.” Mr. Bennett cupped his hands to Nathaniel Brooks, his manner very respectful.

David Johnson nodded inwardly. No wonder he’d made it in the central government—no matter what he thought inside, his outward manners were always impeccable.

Nathaniel Brooks smiled and nodded, replying, “Understood.” But in his heart, he was pondering other matters.

Summer had just ended, yet wrapped in a fox fur, he didn’t feel hot at all—on the contrary, it was quite comfortable. Truly odd.

Just then, he heard Mr. Bennett say, “I’ve heard Your Excellency possesses a divine bow. Do you recall who crafted it?”

Nathaniel Brooks’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Mr. Bennett had been entrusted by his superior to inquire about this.

It was said that the Lord of the East Sea had killed the Zhou king not merely by surprise, nor solely due to his exceptional archery, but mainly because that divine bow had an extraordinary range, and its arrowheads were made of a kind of refined steel never seen before.

But after the battle, when they found the hero who had slain the Zhou king, the bow and arrows were already gone.

At that time, this county lord had been in a daze, utterly lost, and nothing could be learned from him.

Now, among the high officials and nobles of Jinling, a new rumor was spreading: that the Tang was the true recipient of Heaven’s mandate, and the Zhou king had been struck down by divine retribution—Heaven had merely borrowed the hand of a minor militia leader.

This rumor was especially popular in the capital. Of course, Mr. Bennett understood that the royal family must have been fanning the flames.

Naturally, the hero chosen by Heaven to slay the traitor of Zhou would be lavishly rewarded.

Hence the extraordinary enfeoffment that broke with Tang tradition.

Still, many high officials and nobles in the capital remained fixated on the divine bow that Heaven had bestowed upon this young man.

Mr. Bennett’s superior, the Privy Envoy Adam Brooks, was one of them.

Hearing Mr. Bennett’s question, a glint flashed in Nathaniel Brooks’s eyes. He smiled and said, “I don’t really remember.”

Of course, he couldn’t admit that he was a blacksmith himself—and probably the best in this world.

Otherwise, if the Tang emperor issued an order for thousands of sets of armor and weapons, he’d have no time for anything else but forging day and night.

Nathaniel Brooks was quite confident in his smithing skills. In his previous life, he’d loved forging cold weapons and even primitive firearms. After being struck by lightning, his senses had become even sharper, his strength greater, and his control more precise. His technique for forging out the carbon and other impurities from molten iron had improved beyond his previous life. Not only could he make heavy weapons, but crafting intricate small parts would be no problem at all.

Mr. Bennett’s question, however, got Nathaniel Brooks thinking. After establishing his residence, he could recruit his own troops. If he trained a personal guard equipped with weapons a generation ahead of this world’s, even with small numbers, they would be a force no one could underestimate.

He began to ponder gunpowder and firearms even more.