In the carriage, Julian sat with his hands on his thighs, facing Losiya sitting properly. Meanwhile, Losiya leaned on her hand, flipping through all the materials the auction house had given her about Julian.
Julian kept his head down, trying his best to hide his abnormality, constantly calculating in his mind what Losiya might say to him and what she might do to him.
Julian's recovered memories could provide too little content, not even enough to understand this world properly.
In his memory, there was only him living dependently with his mother. Where was his father?
In Julian's memories, he would often be bullied by local girls. Originally, he just thought children's bullying behavior was indiscriminate between boys and girls, without thinking much about it. But after experiencing the recent auction, his suspicions grew deeper.
Perhaps the nervous aura Julian was emitting was too obvious. Losiya's gaze finally left the documents and looked at Julian across from her with a gentle smile.
"How old are you this year?"
"Sixteen years old." Julian answered honestly.
Just as in the documents, Losiya assessed Julian's youthful face and thin, small body, casually saying:
"Is it because of poverty at home? You look like your nutrition has been consistently inadequate."
"Yes... Mother has been seriously ill in bed."
Julian only said this much. His thin face couldn't bring himself to completely wrap Julian's circumstances around himself without hesitation.
Losiya seemed to feel this topic was somewhat heavy and involuntarily put down her raised leg, otherwise appearing too disrespectful to the other party.
"After arriving at the territory, you'll be able to eat full meals every day. Happy?" Losiya used a tone of coaxing a small child.
Contrary to her expectation, Julian didn't show a joyful expression, but instead returned to a tense state.
"Am I that scary?" Losiya said helplessly.
Only then did Julian raise his head, saying gently: "You're certainly not scary."
"Then what are you nervous about?"
Julian lowered his head again, burying his face in his silver-white long hair.
Seeing his pitiful appearance looking down, Losiya withdrew her playful intent and asked him casually:
"Are you afraid that I'll carry you to bed tonight when we get back?"
Julian, who had felt uncomfortable from the beginning, finally heard that question.
"Are all men here like this?" He answered with a question.
Losiya was stunned after hearing this.
"Otherwise what? What do you think men should be like?"
After the doubt in her eyes dissipated, she couldn't help but burst into laughter. Her body shook with laughter, and despite the somewhat crude movement, the sound was still pleasant as always.
"Why?" Julian asked, confused.
The laughter stopped abruptly. Losiya looked straight into Julian's left eye, seeing only the purest confusion and clarity in those deep eyes, clean like a mountain spring.
Thinking of Julian's experiences in the documents, his attitude of not caring about worldly affairs, plus his lack of particularly clear emotions in rural areas, Losiya became somewhat sober again.
"You seem to have no understanding of the Roland Empire and the Admiration Light continent at all?"
"Yes." Julian nodded.
"How should I explain this..." Losiya really wanted to avoid lengthy explanations and said directly:
"Due to special reasons, this entire continent is a female-dominated world. The ruling class is almost entirely female. Can you understand what I'm saying?"
In her sight, Julian's lips opened slightly, showing surprise.
"When you arrive at my territory, you'll understand." She could only say this first.
Julian was indeed very surprised now, but unlike what Losiya thought, Julian was surprised at how this world's class structure had evolved into such a strange form.
Even in the old world, males still held advantageous positions. Compared to before, women's status and voice had greatly increased. By modern times, the number of female presidents worldwide wasn't even much fewer than males.
Ultimately, it was due to productivity. In the agricultural era, patriarchal society was undoubtedly at its strongest, and after modernization, the gradual reduction in productivity differences led to later changes.
So what factor determines status in this world? What created such a large gender class difference?
Julian quietly pondered this question while Losiya pulled back the carriage curtain to look outside the window.
"My lady, we're almost there." The female knight controlling the carriage said respectfully.
Losiya nodded, then after sitting down, her beautiful eyes looked at Julian across from her, that concentrated appearance with lowered eyelashes looking so beautiful.
"Won't you look at where we've arrived?" Losiya suddenly said.
Julian blinked in the interruption, immediately pulling back the curtain on one side.
The carriage drove out of the dense forest. In the distance on the horizon was a pure white city wall with Lily emblem flags on the wall.
It wasn't until near the city wall that he discovered a moat also surrounded the wall. What lay before his eyes was a fortress.
Before the carriage reached the fortress, the city gate connecting to the outside bridge was lowered.
Julian placed his head by the window, looking at the distant scenery. After entering the fortress, he immediately felt the warm human atmosphere, feeling like he was traveling.
From Losiya's perspective, she clearly saw the beautiful admiring expression in Julian's eyes, and her lips couldn't help but curve up in a proud smile.
"This is my territory. How does it feel?"
Julian spoke his thoughts.
"I don't see the oppressive atmosphere of other territories. Everyone looks very happy. The lord of this place must be both capable and very kind."
After speaking, Julian realized this was Losiya's Lily territory, so he had just...
His fair skin showed a shy pink blush as Julian turned his head away from facing Losiya.
He truly didn't know how beautiful and enchanting this scene was in Losiya's eyes.
Ideas that had never been born before, even evil thoughts, showed signs of emerging in this moment. Losiya twitched her index finger, though Julian didn't notice.
"We'll arrive at my manor soon. Looking forward to it?" Finally, Losiya changed the subject first.
"Yes, I'm very much looking forward to it." Julian smiled.
Almost warmly conversing all the way, his vigilance was also unconsciously relaxing.
Completely different from his worst expectations, this Count Losiya was not only not a bad person, but seemed to be someone very easy to get along with.
The carriage slowly stopped, and the female knight holding the reins in front lifted the curtain and said:
"Lord, we've arrived at the manor."
"Thank you for your hard work, Eileen." After Losiya spoke, she stood up.
Turning around, she extended her right hand toward Julian while her left hand supported her chest as she bowed.
"Would you be willing to give me your hand?"
"Good... good." Julian placed his slender fingers into Losiya's right hand wearing black lace gloves.
Gripping Julian's small hand tightly, Losiya led him down from the carriage just like that.
"Welcome home, my lord."
Just after getting off the carriage, Julian was startled by a row of female servants in front of him.