Chapter 908: The Regret of Rice, General Principles of the Legal Code

Near noon, Xia Duo put away his notes.

Aside from meetings, he had only spent the whole morning doing some theoretical spell Ascending Ring derivations on paper; he hadn't even begun to design the experiments yet, and feeling time pass so quickly made him quite unhappy.

However, upon seeing the steaming hot hometown dishes sent over by the Logistics Department, that slight unhappiness was instantly cast to the back of Xia Duo's mind.

By now, the territory's head chef, Kuke, had already obtained his true teachings and had even surpassed the master; a braised venison, a stir-fried lettuce, and a steamed egg custard—just the smell alone was enough to make one's mouth water.

"It's just a pity there's no rice!"

Xia Duo sighed while chewing on a steamed bun. He could teach the cooking methods, but as for the staple ingredient of rice, if it wasn't there, it wasn't there; he couldn't just conjure it out of thin air.

The saying "a clever housewife cannot cook without rice" described exactly this situation.

If he could find the legendary Kara-Tur, perhaps he could find rice, but the difficulty of finding Kara-Tur was not necessarily less than the difficulty of creating a crop similar to rice through Magic himself.

Kara-Tur was the term in the Netherese language, while the location of Kara-Tur was referred to as "the East" in Elvish, which also carried the meaning of "Eastern Kingdom."

In Elven legends, the Eastern Kingdom was ancient and mysterious, a place of splendor and magnificence where gold was everywhere.

It was just a pity that, apart from the ancient high Mage "Saint Nuode'er" who had once been there and brought back the legends of the Eastern Kingdom, no other Elf had ever gone to Kara-Tur since.

Over the past few thousand years, only people from Kara-Tur had come to Faerun, while no travelers from Faerun had gone to Kara-Tur—or rather, those who went never returned.

Naturally, Xia Duo could not possibly risk everything to pursue a so-called Eastern legend just to eat some rice; that would be truly brain-dead.

If it were for exchange or trade, that might be possible, but Xia Duo did not want to waste his energy on overly illusory things for the time being.

Kara-Tur was exactly that kind of thing.

Mu Yan hadn't been able to find any useful clues in half a lifetime, so where would Xia Duo get the confidence to find them! It would be fine to look when he had leisure time in the future, but for now, forget it!

……

After lunch, Laidun personally delivered the morning's meeting minutes. Xia Duo flipped through them casually, already having a rough idea of everyone's thoughts in his mind.

"Laidun, there was no need for you to personally deliver these meeting minutes. Speak! What else is there?"

Laidun hesitated for a moment, took a stack of Parchment from his bosom, handed it to Xia Duo's desk, and explained: "My Lord, these are some of my shallow thoughts on the Territory's legal code. I ask that you please review them!"

"So fast!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Xia Duo realized that Laidun must have already prepared them beforehand; otherwise, how could he have submitted a draft in the afternoon when the meeting had only just finished in the morning!

With a hint of curiosity, Xia Duo opened the manuscript Laidun had handed over. Laidun's handwriting was very neat, giving the feeling of looking at printed text; perhaps this was also a way of practicing order.

This thought flashed through Xia Duo's mind and vanished; the handwriting was not his focus, the content was!

The first line of the manuscript read, "In the name of Xia Duo, Lord of Daxia Territory, establish order," followed by phrases like "Only order reaches all things" and "Witnessed by the Lord of Radiance."

Below that were praises for Xia Duo's act of establishing Daxia Territory. Xia Duo was indeed quite satisfied when reading these decorative words, and he also believed their existence was very necessary.

But in his own Study, when examining the substance of the legal code, these were not his focus.

After flipping past two pages of text unrelated to the articles of law, Xia Duo finally saw the main text of the laws he cared about most—

"Xia Duo, Pioneer of Daxia Territory, possesses the indisputable right to rule over Daxia Territory, to be inherited for eternity!"

"Those who injure others shall be punished; those who kill shall die; those who rebel shall have their kin implicated!"

"Private property is sacred and inviolable!"

……

Xia Duo read through them one by one. Most were framework-style general articles, involving aspects such as legitimacy, criminal law, civil law, trade, marriage, inheritance, and Judgment.

Each one was closely related to the actual operation of the Territory, and many were the exact words Xia Duo had once spoken, directly quoted by Laidun.

Seeing the end, Xia Duo was very satisfied. It could be said that this was a set of guiding legal principles written specifically by Laidun according to his will, with no content contrary to his opinions.

Xia Duo was not proficient in the field of law, but his experiences before transmigrating gave him insights far exceeding those of the local people of Netheril.

Thinking carefully, he did not find any self-contradictory points, so he organized the manuscript, placed it on the edge of the desk, and said to Laidun: "I don't think there are any problems. Expand the specific articles based on this!"

"Yes, My Lord!"

Laidun's face revealed joy; he immediately bowed and stepped forward to take back the manuscript.

"Then go and get busy!"

"Yes."

Laidun responded and left on his own.

……

Once again, Xia Duo was left alone in the Study. Recalling the general legal manuscript he had just seen, his heart suddenly stirred, and he took out a loose sheet of Parchment.

He then cast 【Transcription】 to imprint some legal articles he had seen before transmigrating onto it. These were, of course, in Chinese characters, but immediately after, Xia Duo began to flip through them.

This was not difficult; he simply used the most plain Netherese language combined with the current actual situation of Daxia Territory to translate them.

The content was not important; the key was the form.

Xia Duo had seen the specific legal articles of Netheril at Laidun's place. They weren't necessarily bad, but they were mostly based on cases—for example, someone did something, so they were judged in such a way.

If there were differences in the details, such as someone stealing 10 Gold Coins while the law only stated that stealing 9 Gold Coins resulted in hard labor, then during the actual Judgment, there was too much room for the judge, or rather the superior, to maneuver.

Xia Duo hoped to use ranges instead of specific numbers, such as "stealing property within a certain range results in such-and-such punishment."

This might weaken the authority of the judge, but it made the law clearer and was conducive to stability.

……

Soon, Xia Duo had localized the parts of the hometown legal articles he had once seen, and then he cast a spell to teleport them to Laidun.

Of course, this was not him deliberately showing off a new use for Teleportation; Xia Duo wasn't that bored to show off to a non-Mage.

He was simply saving time.

After doing this, he continued to study the spell Ascending Ring.

……

Just like that, time quickly arrived three days later. That day, Xia Duo was in the Study casting spells to inspect the Territory when someone suddenly reported that Yatewude requested an audience.

Xia Duo immediately thought of the task he had assigned him earlier, so he hurriedly had Yatewude come over.

"Elder Yatewude, have you finished the book?"

"My lord, I have just finished reading it and dared not delay, so I hurried here to see you!"