Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Having settled the business, it was time for some fun. Shelton Brice generously invited everyone to the Brice family forest in the north for a hunt.

One of the ancestors of the House of Brice was the master of this vast forest. Later, the Brice family sold half of the southern forest as a development area for Carterburg, and leased the remaining northern forest to the Carterburg city hall for timber procurement. This brought in a handsome annual income. Most importantly, members of the Brice family had the right to hunt in this forest.

At any time.

As a family that loved hunting, the Brice family specifically reduced the rent by ten percent to retain this privilege.

In an era where land ownership was private, it was natural for a great family like the Brice to possess some harmless privileges. The royalty understood the Brice’s actions, as the estate was hard-won by the first Brice Duke with his family’s lives; the Church didn’t mind the Brice’s actions, for they were devout worshippers of the War God, offering Chaos sacrifices to the Deity every year.

The spring in Carterburg was as cold as winter, which troubled Malin somewhat. It wasn’t that he felt cold, as Frost Giants’ resistance to cold was so high that Malin could ignore temperatures down to negative 20 degrees, but having lived so long, freezing like a dog every year in the South was still enough to make Malin detest winter, not to mention knee-deep snow.

For Shelton, the snow was too shallow.

But for Malin, the snow was already impeding his movements.