"Is this the reason you avoid her every day?" Grendel was speechless. She had considered many possibilities, such as personality or appearance, but she never expected it to be this.

"If you can see it, how could I not? But there's no need to hurt someone like this. Young people are impulsive, and they'll become more rational as they grow older."

"You're only in your early twenties, not much older than her!" Grendel immediately rolled over and sat on Lance's waist, pressing down on him with both hands as she started to argue back.

"Your concern is a joke. I definitely understand this better than you. Why could Boslake resist snake venom even after losing his heritage? It's because of the tribe's innate bloodline abilities.

The manifestation of the Extraordinary Bloodline is related to the power of the Transcendent themselves. You can tell from Barin's size that his father was of giant bloodline, but you have a normal human figure, so why fear this?

If anything, the only thing that could harm the mother during fetal development would be malnutrition, and you're the one who taught me about nutrition. How can a regular peasant woman compare to our current situation?"

"Why are you so eager about this?" Lance couldn't help but tease. This kind of thing required mutual consent, and with the ancestors still watching from below, he really didn't have much interest in this issue.

"The more powerful the bloodline, the better. It's a contribution to humanity's competitiveness."

Grendel spoke with righteous fervor, but in reality, it was the Mountain way of thinking at work—a leader wanting to control the tribe by having more offspring.

Just like the lead wolf is succeeded by the Warwolf, it's all from the same line.

Even though it was supposedly for him, Lance didn't agree.

"I have to criticize you for this. It's typical feudal thinking. Our Hamlet is an advanced territory at the forefront of the new era.

And this is the Empire, not the Barbarian Tribes. You should take some time to study the nobility system's constraints on power. Reversing decisions isn't possible; a Lord's position isn't that easy to take.

If there wasn't any supernatural power, Lance would have refuted her with 'only beasts talk about bloodlines,' but in this world, bloodlines indeed exist and have a huge influence.

So he could only argue from the power structure perspective. In the tribes, if you challenge and defeat the old leader, you can truly become the leader. Other tribespeople might even support it because a stronger leader can lead the tribe to a more glorious future.

But the Empire doesn't allow this. If a subordinate directly kills the Lord and takes the territory, they would be hunted by the entire Empire. No one would tolerate someone who challenges the rules.

Therefore, the surrounding nobles are slowly encroaching on Hamlet, even maintaining its name, at least nominally, for now.

Only during the current chaos within the Empire have they shown their ambition, wanting to completely annex Hamlet, but they have to test various waters.

This is the restraint of the nobility system on power, but it restrains those below.

Otherwise, he would have gone to eliminate the Emperor right off the bat; why bother with all these things?

"But your words reminded me of something."

"What?" Grendel was caught in Lance's reasoning, and while she was pondering, she subconsciously replied.

"We should also make some efforts."

With that, Lance raised his hand, and in the next second, she was pressed down, their positions instantly reversed.

"I'll go get Boudica to keep you company." Realizing what was happening, Grendel struggled beneath him.

Why don't you have any sense of measure? We just stopped not long ago; who can withstand this?

"Who was urging me just a moment ago?" Lance leaned in closer. "Now you realize you were wrong, right?"

"I was wrong! I was wrong!" Grendel didn't hesitate to plead for mercy.

"Then let's sleep." Lance held her and directly lay down on the bed without making another move.

Feeling that Lance was just holding her and not taking further action, Grendel knew he was only trying to scare her.

Watching him fall into a deep sleep, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

This man always takes care of others' feelings, but what about himself?

If I don't think for him, who will?

......

In the hall of the Lord's Mansion, a tall wax statue stood aside, with its armor removed, revealing a body sealed by wax and most notably a missing section of skin at the heart replaced by exposed molten wax, with a blood-red crystal embedded in the indentation.

Alongside were other seized items.

And Lance was in the middle, explaining the information he had acquired earlier.

"This is what I got from that..."

Alhazred and Amanda, the two advisors, were scrutinizing the items Lance had captured.

"These pieces of equipment carry a strong undead aura, undoubtedly with curses attached."

"Corpse Control, Corpse Explosion Technique, Bone Armor, Plague Poison Mist—these are the means of those necromancers."

"This wax puppet is cast from a real person. The ritual modifications not only preserve its combat abilities from life but also make it tireless and immensely strong."

"..."

After a long study, they finally reached a conclusion, which Lance then articulated.

"So you think this person is likely a necromancer apprentice, but there's no way these things could have been made by him alone. Therefore, there must be a more powerful teacher behind him?"

In simple terms, this person's abilities don't match the equipment they're carrying, implying a stronger spellcaster behind them.