Free Web NovelChapter 191: Depravity
While Gerald Baker was still the Count, Herald City and the Baker County as a whole had grown fairly steadily.
With an abundance of fertile land to its west, and a wealth of natural resources available from both the Belton River and the forests to the east, as long as it was managed properly, Herald City had the potential to become a large metropolis within 100 years.
However, all that came to a grinding halt when Richard Baker became Patriarch.
Many of the policies that Gerald had put in place, such as using the Baker Family’s fortune and most of the tax revenue generated from both the city and the surrounding county to improve the domain, were either curtailed or canceled entirely by Richard.
The reason? Greed and ignorance.
Where the old Count Baker saw value in investing for the future, growing his wealth steadily by making his territory wealthier, the new Count Baker saw this ’charity’ work as a waste of his money.
The only reason Herald City and its surroundings didn’t completely fall into ruin was because the wealthy merchants and lower nobles, who had an interest in maintaining their own fortunes, were able to convince Richard to continue supporting at least some types of trade and industries.
These men and women, who mostly lived in and around Herald City and weren’t interested in moving elsewhere to start over, understood that a total collapse of the local economy would be bad for them. They also knew very well who they were dealing with; so, in order to influence the new Count Baker, they threw expensive parties and showered Richard with lavish gifts, all while whispering advice into his ear.
Naturally, these people didn’t have Richard’s, or even the city’s best interest at heart; they simply wanted to maintain their own wealth and power. The easiest way to do that was to buy the Count’s favour.
This kind of covert and open bribery resulted in many exclusive agreements being signed, resource rights being handed out, and laxer inspections and laws being imposed, all of which led to a deterioration in the quality of life for all but the wealthiest and most powerful citizen in the Baker Family’s territory.
Half-a-century later, everything within Richard Baker’s grasp had grown stale and stagnant, from Herald City, to his own cultivation. Indulging in every vice imaginable while handing almost all administrative duties to his uncle and subordinates, Richard Baker was a Count in name only.
Just as his father had anticipated, the only thing keeping Richard in power was his Spirit Initiate strength, and the wastrel was happy to let things remain that way. As long as he could keep drinking, eating, and bedding women, the man cared little for anything more.
In fact, the only aspect of his self that Richard didn’t entirely let go of was his physical image, putting in just enough effort to maintain a somewhat fit and handsome façade. This wasn’t because he particularly cared about his health or personal strength, however, but rather because this made it easier for him to charm more powerful women into his bed.
While Richard didn’t object to sleeping with ’lower’ women, the thrill of conquering those with real power and influence was much more intoxicating to him.
Thanks to the presence of World Qi and cultivation in this world, women were perfectly capable of becoming just as powerful and influential as men, and those with money, power, or status would never pay a waste like Richard any heed just because he was a Count or a Low-Rank Spirit Initiate. If Richard wanted to have any chance at charming such partners, having decent looks was just a basic pre-requisite.
Of course, the only glance a truly powerful woman of the Rockwell Kingdom would direct towards Richard was a disdainful one, but there were still plenty who came from weaker backgrounds or who had lesser strength who might be interested in scaling the social ladder by providing some ’favours’ to the easily influenced Count.
In this remote city, there were only 2 other Spirit Initiates; one was Richard’s uncle, who was more than happy to let his nephew parade around as Count while he held almost all of the real power, and the local Garrison Commander, who had almost as little interest in doing paperwork and crafting policy as Richard.
As for the Rockwell Kingdom itself, since the tax revenue generated in Herald City had never been that high, and it was still paid on time, nobody in the capital cared what happened on the western outskirts of the nation.
Richard Baker was content and figured he would spend a few more decades enjoying himself before finding a few official wives to bare him some proper heirs. Once his succession was taken care of, he would take all the money he could carry and set off to see the rest of the world.
Much unlike his father, Richard had no intention of seeking opportunities to increase his cultivation in order to improve himself, he simply wanted to travel to new places, eat new foods, drink new wines, and patronize all the exotic brothels he could find.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan, until 8 days ago when everything went to Hell.
The massive explosion which occurred deep inside the Great Western Forest was the start of Richard Baker’s nightmare. ƒreewebɳovel.com
All of a sudden, his peaceful, indulgent life was completely upended by an unending series of crises.
Panicked citizens, anxious nobles, fleeing merchants, floods of refugees, and constant beast attacks were just some of the problems that Richard now had to deal with.
Even if his uncle, Arnold Baker, was the one actually handling most of the mess, Richard still needed to sign off on many things as he was still technically the Count.
To make matters worse, a few days ago, Richard’s good friend Leonard had sent him a warning about some foreign noble showing up and demanding he submit to their authority. This kind of blatant challenge to his power, in his own home no less, had completely enraged the petty Count Baker.
From that day on, Richard had decreed that no outsiders were allowed to interfere in Herald City’s governance, and that any major actions the City Watch or Garrison wanted to take needed his explicit approval. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Over the past 8 days, Richard had signed more documents and listened to more complaints than he had in the past decade, leaving him in a perpetually foul mood.
Never having been fond of fighting, and with no parties being held due to the emergency, the only way Richard had left to vent his frustrations was by engaging in strenuous nighttime exercise.
Unfortunately for the Count, all of his usual ’workout partners’ were too busy looking for ways to protect themselves and their assets, and the city’s brothels had mostly shut down thanks to their owners trying to escape the city, so finding companions had become an issue.
With no way to alleviate the stress he was building up from all the ’hard work’ he was forced to do, Richard grew even more irritable until finally, on the fifth night of the crisis, a solution literally presented itself to him.
On that day, the daughter of a small merchant had somehow managed to gain an audience with the Count and begged him to let her family into the city.
This wasn’t the first time Richard had heard such a request, and this woman was neither the most powerful nor the wealthiest to come before him, so he would normally have dismissed her out of hand; but, after spending many days being pent up, he suddenly found this young woman, who normally would have appeared quite plain to him, to be quite attractive.
When the Count laid eyes on her lovely figure and face, he immediately felt a surge of lust. The fact that he hadn’t been able to find enough women who met his standards to sleep with these past few days also inflamed his libido, making this innocent woman begging for his help all the more enticing.
When the merchant’s daughter said she was willing to ’do anything’ and would ’pay any price’ in order to secure her family’s safety, Richard had an epiphany. Instead of rejecting her, like he had so many others, he instead made a proposal, one that naturally drew a gasp of shock from the woman.
The woman wanted to refuse, as she was both pure and unwed, but thinking about how she could save her father, mother, and siblings by just surrendering her innocence, she ultimately nodded.
This woman wasn’t an idiot and knew that the Count hadn’t suddenly fallen in love with her; he didn’t want her to become his wife, concubine, or even mistress, this was nothing more than a transaction. She would exchange her body for her family’s safety, but what she failed to realize was the true depths of Richard’s depravity.
After realizing he could have any woman he wanted by dangling this kind of bait in front of them, Richard immediately sent out a couple dozen of his guards to scour the streets and even the refugee camps outside the walls. They had only one order, to find pretty, desperate women similar to the merchant’s daughter and offer them a chance to ’meet with the Count’.
That night, a total of 6 women, including the merchant’s daughter, were forced to participate in what was by far the worst experience of their lives.
Holding absolute control of these women’s lives, and knowing they could not disobey any of his commands, Richard engaged in a kind of deviancy he had never before been able to experience.
By morning, 2 of these women had been completely broken both physically and mentally, the merchant’s daughter being one of them. As for the other 4, they suffered traumas they would likely never recover from.
On the other hand, Richard had never felt more refreshed.
As a Count, even one only in name, he had always held the power of life and death over all of his subjects, but never before had that feeling been as raw and carnal as it was last night. Having tasted this new kind of thrill, Richard was now greatly looking forward to the coming day and all the playthings he could torment.
3 days later, on the eighth night of the crisis, 8 new women were escorted to the Count’s bedroom by the Baker Family Guards. 4 of these women were directly sent into the room, while the other 4 were ordered to wait outside.
As Richard Baker wantonly swept his gaze over the half-naked women before him, watching them shake with fear while forcing themselves to smile ingratiatingly, the man felt an overwhelming sense of empowerment, like he had become a true king.
It was so intoxicating that it made Richard wonder why he had never engaged in this kind of activity before.
Just as Richard Baker was about to order his prey to strip the last vestiges of cloth from their bodies, though, a terrifying pressure suddenly crashed down on him.
